Dad’s Involvement in Bringing up a Baby

By Aanchal Goel,

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When a woman gets pregnant, she becomes the centre of attention amongst her family & friends. Then when the baby arrives, all the focus shifts to the mother & the new baby. The poor dads are side tracked almost completely. One day, they are just the usual husband’s & the next, a father to a new born baby!

There’s a saying that, a woman becomes a mother as soon as she gets pregnant while, a man becomes a father when he holds his baby for the first time.

Mothers & their babies have a nine month long bond before birth which further strengthens after the baby arrives as the mother feeds, changes diapers, makes the baby sleep & so on. While, fathers just literally see a kid who just looks like them a little bit & have no clue what to do next.

However, fathers also play a very important role in bringing up a baby. Research proves that children with involved fathers have an advantage socially & academically over children without involved fathers.

How can a new dad help out with the baby? Don’t worry! Here are some pointers to help you out:

1. The new mother is usually exhausted from the constant attention she has to give to the little one. After all, looking after a new born is no child’s play. It requires a lot of hard work and dedication. You could start by putting the phones on silent mode & answer the phones & the door bell so that the mom & baby can get some rest.

2. You can help in bathing the baby, changing diapers, burping & making the baby sleep. It will give you an opportunity to bond with the little one too. My husband generally bathes our little one on Sundays. I have noticed both father and son bonding and really having a lot of fun splashing water and playing with those water toys.

3. Make sure you find sometime in the day to speak to the baby. You could use this opportunity to teach your baby simple words like papa and mama. Trust me it really works!

4. For the initial few days or week, you can take on the night shift. You can feed bottled breast milk to the baby so that the mommy gets to rest her eyes too. It helps relieve a lot of undue physical and mental stress on the moms which could otherwise effect the secretion of mother’s milk.

5. Make sure you provide enough physical contact with the baby like singing, rocking or playing with the baby. This will make the baby feel loved & secure in your presence. Also, very importantly, it relieves the feeling of stranger anxiety a baby could have with their dad’s if it all there exists.

6. It is obviously very hard to help out in the nights if you’re a full time working dad. You can opt to help out on weekends then!

7. You could also speak to friends and colleagues and share your experiences and gather useful tips on parenting. My husband gets a lot of information from his friend’s which has helped us whenever we have had any problems. Reading books on parenting by popular authors can also be helpful. All your family & friends must be excited for you & you can take pictures/videos of the baby.

8. You can also give the baby a massage as your touch is a very good stimulating tool for the kid.

9. You can take the baby out for a stroll in the pram. Looking at the sky, trees , birds & so on can be a useful stimulating tool & a change of surrounding for the baby too. Little babies are very observant, inquisitive and receptive. Hence it is very beneficial to expose them to different audio, visual and other kinds of stimulants for the development of their cognitive skills.

10. You can also set some time aside each day to set a routine daddy’s time like a bath or reading a baby book before putting the baby down to sleep.

11. Try & attend all the regular check-ups with your baby’s paediatrician to know how your baby’s growing & developing

Becoming a parent is not only a blessing but also the most wonderful gift of god. It also brings with it some responsibilities and duties as an individual. When both parents share responsibilities and contribute together, they are paving the way for a better and a more meaningful growth and development of the child. So all you daddies get your act together and start right away.