Dad's Role in Health

As a maternal and child health volunteer, I spend a lot of time thinking and talking about mothers and I often make the mistake of overlooking dads. Like moms, fathers provide an incredible variety of health, mental, social, and economic benefits in childrearing, many of which go beyond anything observable or measurable. Having not one, but two incredible fathers in my life, has been crucial in my personal development. My dad and stepdad are positive male role models in my life that have helped sculpt me into a confident, ambitious young woman. They've taught me that I am strong, and that real men love strong women. They’ve introduced me to boxing and scuba diving. They’ve watched countless movies and Monk episodes with me, sampled my ice cream creations, held me when I’ve cried, laughed at my bad jokes, and cheered me on through even my more inspired endeavors.  I can only imagine the beautiful world we would live in if every girl were lucky enough to have them as their dads.

In my Mother’s Day blog post, I spoke about giving women more time by relieving them of some of their familial responsibilities. Now the other side of that coin is helping fathers worldwide take on these newly assigned roles. If you open up a parenting book in the States, you’ll see that it’s written from the perspective of a mother. If you leaf through the piles and piles of parenting pamphlets here in my health center, you’ll find that they’re exclusively directed towards women. If we want men to be more involved in parenting, we have to develop more appropriate resources that implicate men just as much as women. Put changing tables in men’s restrooms. Feature a male in a home appliance commercial for once. Involve men. When we place the complete responsibility of childcare on women, we also deposit the full weight of the blame. I’ve heard many community members and even health workers here in Guatemala disparaging mothers of malnourished kids without a single mention to the involvement or lack thereof of the father. Deconstructing gender norms surrounding parenting helps distribute the obligation, stress, and accountability that come with raising children. Basically we all win, so why aren’t we doing more to include dads?

Research shows that when men are more involved in their children’s wellbeing, they are more likely to share household autonomy with their female partners. In countries like Guatemala where a woman needs formal permission from her husband before seeking medical care for herself or her children, this could mean the difference between life and death. Undeniably, fathers play a unique and important role in the social and mental development of their children, and it has been shown that their involvement is a significant positive predictor of beneficial health and social outcomes that expand even into adulthood.

Unfortunately, there's not a lot of research surrounding the exact benefits of including men in promoting maternal and child health because there are very few organizations in the developing world devoted to including men. But when we as public health professionals exclude men from health initiatives, we isolate women as the sole caretakers of their families. Nearly every MCH Peace Corps volunteer has a club de embarazadas (pregnant woman’s club) or a consejeria de mujeres con niños desnutridos (counseling of women with malnourished children). Including fathers would be a novelty to say the least. In resource-poor settings, actively involving fathers not only increases the socioeconomic capital of every member in a household, it also helps reduce rates of things like malnutrition and under-five mortality. I know that several cultural and social factors can make attracting men to MCH activities incredibly strenuous and difficult, but if we don't continue to try we'll never see change. Dads have the potential to be amazing support systems and their role in health is unequivocally important, so let's give them a place at the table. 

Happy Father’s Day to all the men in my life that have been a positive, norm-breaking role model and have taught me to be tough, to be smart, and most importantly be true to who I am. To my dad that has promised to hate every boyfriend I bring home and then immediately becomes their best friend. To my stepdad who is always willing to smoke a cigar or embark on two-year long carpentry projects with me.