People don’t like to hear it, but after the birth of a child, a father’s testosterone plummets, and a single hormonal shift like this, can ripple into his mood, energy, and connection with his baby. And whilst the majority of childcare is still done by the mother, fathers increasingly share this burden, on top of what is usually a full time job too.
Parenthood, to put it mildly, is not easy, for mothers or fathers, and yet, the mental health of fathers is quickly forgotten about, overlooked, or even mocked and sneered at.
So it is time we talked about paternal postnatal depression, which impacts between 8-10% of fathers? And is it time we took seriously the lived experiences, and mental wellbeing of our dads? What do you think?
~ New podcast with Ally Fogg , chair of AMHW out now!
Full podcast https://youtu.be/0UQ39FSylIA
‘Two to three babies’ https://www.1001criticaldays.com/article/paternal-suicide-in-the-1001-critical-days
Testosterone levels https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21911391/
PND in both parents https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2793548
2026-09-23