How do new fathers form relationships with their children?

Friday 22nd Apr 2016, 3.21pm

How do new fathers form relationships with their children? What is the unique role of a father? What do they contribute to the development of their children? What is male post-natal depression? Having a child is a huge change in any person’s life – but research has only recently focussed on the experiences of fathers. Dr Anna Machin explains how fathers have a different mechanism to form bonds with their child from mothers, as they don’t have a ‘neurochemical shortcut’. But new father’s expectations before birth don’t always match their expectations afterwards, and this can have a negative effect. She describes male post-natal depression and how her research is shedding light on identifying it and hopefully ways of avoiding it.