Eight years ago, Dennis Gaynor Jr.’s son Samuel was born at 28 weeks gestation weighing 1 lb. 6 oz. Mr. Gaynor was encouraged to hold his baby skin-to-skin during their hospital stay to help improve his baby’s blood oxygen levels, sleep, temperature, breastfeeding and weight gain. Kangaroo Care was a new concept for Mr. Gaynor.
Photo courtesy of the Gaynor family
“[I] didn’t realize that this is such a great way to bond with Sam. But I did it with no hesitation and I’m enjoying every minute, second, and hour,” Mr. Gaynor shared. “The thought of my heart beat going into my sons’ ears brings a melody to my heart.”
Samuel’s mother also held him skin-to-skin and provided her milk which helped them endure several surgeries throughout his first few years of life.
Mr. Gaynor says that he continued to hold Sam skin-to-skin after they were discharged from the hospital. “He was so small, I was scared to hold him, but that was the only other method,” he explains. “To this day, he lays on my chest; everyone else gives me a normal hug, but this is what we’ve always done.”
Photo courtesy of the Gaynor family
Mr. Gaynor and his wife run a 501(C)3 nonprofit organization called Young Men on a Mission: YMOM (pronounced why mom) established in the inner city of Milwaukee, Wis. Their programming includes mentoring, sports and work training intended to help young men “gain hope in themselves to create goals that extend beyond their daily existence; retain hope when it appears that the odds are stacked against them; and dare to be somebody.” Find out more about YMOM here: https://www.youngmenonamission.org/about-us
Check out Healthy Children Project’s Kajsa Brimdyr’s The 9 Stages of Premature Infants film which shows the nine stages demonstrated by premature infants. Find more here.
You can read Facilitating the bond between children and fathers or male-identifying partners which covers the positive effects of skin-to skin contact on paternal attachment here.
There’s quite a bit of literature on why it is important for fathers to support breastfeeding, and robust recommendations on how fathers can be good support people.
Photo by Anna Shvets: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-man-in-blue-long-sleeves-playing-with-his-baby-11369399/
Specifically in Black communities though, there’s a “lack of resources for men to learn about and advocate for breastfeeding.” George W. Bugg, Jr, et al. write inBreastfeeding Communities for Fatherhood: Laying the Groundwork for the Black Fatherhood, Brotherhood, and Manhood Movement that “Black men deserve to be educated in culturally competent ways about prenatal and postpartum care to advocate for their partners. This is not happening in a systematic way in the Black community. In the Reproductive Justice space, Black men are basically being treated as if they are invisible.”
As a whole, our nation lacks support for fathers and male identifying partners to bond with their babies. The father–infant relationship should be honored “in its own framework rather than as an alternative to mother–infant theory.” (Cheng 2011)
Author Carolynn Darrell Cheng, et al points out in Supporting Fathering Through Infant Massage that “fathers may feel dissatisfied with their ability to form a close attachment with their infants in the early postpartum period, which, in turn, may increase their parent-related stress.”
Photo by Caroline Hernandez on Unsplash
“Infant massage is such a neglected modality, especially in the NICU, where it reduces both the risk of sepsis and bilirubin levels, and gets babies home sooner because their brains mature more quickly and they gain weight faster,” Nikki Lee points out.
Beyond its benefits to infants, Cheng and colleagues have found that “infant massage appears to be a viable option for teaching fathers caregiving sensitivity.” Their work showed that “fathers were helped by increasing their feelings of competence, role acceptance, spousal support, attachment, and health and by decreasing feelings of isolation and depression. Although not all fathers saw the direct benefit of infant massage instruction, they did note they enjoyed participating in an activity that gave them special time with their infants and appreciated the opportunity to meet other fathers.”
More broadly, skin-to-skin contact has a positive effect on paternal attachment.
Ontario artist Lindsay Foster’s viral image of fathers BJ Barone and Frankie Nelson meeting Baby Milo captures perfectly the flood of oxytocin that skin-to-skin affords fathers and male-identifying parents.
Fathers BJ (left) and Frankie (right) embrace their seconds-old-newborn boy Milo. Milo’s umbilical cord is still attached to the surrogate in this image. Photo by Ontario artist Lindsay Foster. Formerly published in: http://www.ourmilkyway.org/skin-to-skin-image-goes-viral/
WABA suggests that fathers should be engaged and involved throughout the 1,000 days and health systems and care providers can provide knowledge on breastfeeding through antenatal visits, other breastfeeding classes and enabling their participation during labor and delivery and postnatally.
There is also “a need for greater vigilance against promotion and unethical marketing of breastmilk substitutes targeting fathers to ensure that they also get unbiased information.” [More here.]
In our national sphere of advocacy, last month, Foundations of Fatherhood Summit hosted Wide World of Fathering with a mission to advance fatherhood and families in Michigan communities and beyond. The speaker lineup was full of individuals passionate about fatherhood and working to shift the way we view males as parents.
Presenter Reginald Day, CLC for instance, hosts a podcast called Get At Me Dad which reveals the true narrative of BIPOC fathers–”present, connected and raising strong families.”
Reaching Our Brothers Everywhere (ROBE), an organization which seeks to educate, equip, and empower men to impact an increase in breastfeeding rates and a decrease in infant mortality rates within the African-American communities, hosts a monthly virtual call where males can discuss maternal child health related topics.
In partnership with Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere (ROSE), ROBE will host the 11th Annual Breastfeeding and Equity Summit in New Orleans from August 25 to 27, 2022 where presentations center on equity in breastfeeding, maternal health, fathers and partners, and infant health initiatives.
Photo by Devi Puspita Amartha Yahya
Photo by Joice Kelly on Unsplash
Photo by Lawrence Crayton on Unsplash
Our Milky Way past coverage on fathers
Photo by PNW Production: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-family-walking-together-on-a-boardwalk-8576210/
If we can learn to separate, then we can unlearn those practices too. We can learn to reconnect.
In recent time, skin-to-skin contact immediately after birth and beyond has been widely embraced as a tool to keep mothers and babies connected and to promote bonding. Skin-to-skin contact is encouraged to facilitate bonding between baby and father and other care providers too.
As NICHQ President and CEO Scott D. Berns, MD, MPH, FAAP points out inFathers: Powerful Allies for Maternal and Child Health, “father engagement and involvement is a critical opportunity to improve children’s health outcomes in the decades to come”… beginning in the prenatal period.
Despite overwhelming evidence demonstrating the importance of paternal involvement, fathers are up against significant barriers “including systemic obstacles related to employment, and a lack of confidence stemming from social stereotypes about the expected role of a father—namely that their role is somehow secondary to the mother’s.” [https://www.nichq.org/insight/fathers-powerful-allies-maternal-and-child-health]
Fathers BJ (left) and Frankie (right) embrace their seconds-old-newborn boy Milo. Milo’s umbilical cord is still attached to the surrogate in this image.
Photo by Ontario artist Lindsay Foster.
Formerly published in: http://www.ourmilkyway.org/skin-to-skin-image-goes-viral/
The tool is reminiscent of the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS) developed to screen for depression in women during and after pregnancy and childbirth, but different in that it is sensitive to fatherhood and “not retrofitted and adapted from tools developed to capture unique characteristics of depression in women and mothers.”
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
The Yates tool can screen male fathers during the perinatal period (prenatal or before birth up to 12 months after birth) for signs of depression with questions related to Mood/Loss of Interest and Motivation, Aggression/Irritability, Self-Concept/Feelings of Worth, Social System Deficits and Drug/alcohol use.
“We believe that a culturally sensitive, carefully designed tool can give insight into the particular ways depression manifests in male fathers, identify men at risk for perinatal depression, and highlight the need to tailor treatment and services to the unique experiences of male fathers,” Brittany Pope, M.S., Director of Applied Clinical Sciences and Research at OhioGuidestone explains. “Furthermore, we hope to spur opportunities to explore potential programming, treatment and policy changes, both to raise awareness of the need to screen male fathers and to offer efficient and effective services and programs to meet their clinical and parenting needs.”
The tool isn’t yet published and due to COVID-19, research activity has been suspended, however the team plans to reopen the study using remote telehealth videoconferencing in August/September. This method will allow for even higher recruitment and screening.
You can learn more about the screening tool at The Institute of Family & Community Impact’s website here.
Reaching Our Brothers Everywhere (ROBE), an organization dedicated to educating, equipping, and empowering men to impact an increase in breastfeeding rates and a decrease infant mortality rates within the African-American communities, is hosting its 2020 Virtual Summit June 23 & 25 featuring speakers Dr. Saturu Ned, former Black Panther, Dr. Brian McGregor, Dr. Torian Easterling, Kenn Harris from National Healthy Start and the entire ROBE team. Register here.
