Abstract

NOGUEIRA, João Rui Duarte Farias  and  FERREIRA, Manuela. Father’s involvement in pregnancy/childbirth and the emotional bond with the baby. Rev. Enf. Ref. [online]. 2012, vol.serIII, n.8, pp.57-66. ISSN 0874-0283.  https://doi.org/10.12707/RIII1214.

Background: the emotional bond between father and child is crucial in the transition to parenthood and the baby’s development. Objectives: our intention was to verify if there is a relationship between sociodemographic variables, involvement in the pregnancy or cutting the umbilical cord with the emotional bond between father and baby. Methodology: we performed a cross-sectional, quantitative study descriptive and analytical in nature. We administered a questionnaire and the Bonding scale validated for the Portuguese population (Figueiredo et al., 2005), at three different times (during labour, on the 1st and 3rd days after birth) to 222 parents between November 2010 and January 2011. Results: We found that age (between 25 and 40 years), accompanying the pregnant woman to appointments for pregnancy surveillance, monitoring of the pregnancy in preparation for the birth of the baby, reading information about the developing baby involvement in the pregnancy and cutting the umbilical cord positively influence the emotional bond between father and baby. Conclusion: the results indicate an improvement in the emotional bond between father and baby if health professionals promote fathers’ involvement during pregnancyand childbirth.

Keywords : pregnancy; newborn; father-child relations; labour.

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