Dr. Jim Bolton: Well, there is some research now that shows that the number of men who suffer with postnatal depression is as common as the number of women who suffer with postnatal depression upto about one in ten deaths. And as well I think that signals, there are lots of stresses on fathers as well that they have a lot of responsibility with being a new father, they might have to think about where that baby is going to fit into their lives and they are going to have to think about the relationship with their partner or with their wife. So yes, there are lot of strains on the fathers. I think we tend to concentrate more on mothers because we tend to think of mothers as those people who give most care, one-to-one care to children but in these days now lot of parents are equal responsibilities, so I think we are going to have pay more attention to postnatal depression and fathers as well.
Parenthood is a time of big change. It's a time of taking on new responsibilities, changing there as rule and jobs that you might have, because suddenly there in your life is going to be a new baby who is completely and are totally dependent on you. And when you think that's we need to change the nappy of a new baby, we'll have 4,000 times before it becomes to continuative. It begins to give you an idea of sort of responsibilities even having stores on your parent.
I think having a new baby in a family does throw up little sorts of thoughts for both the mother and the father. About what their roles are? Am I going to be a good dad or am I going to mother? How shall I be a good dad? What should I do? How am I going to be a good mother? And there are all sorts of things to think about, I think the most important thing is the parents are able to talk among themselves or if you are single mummy you are able to talk with people close to you about what's happening on those issues. Health visitors are often very usual people to do that way or if you have got friends close to you or even your parents, how do they go with it. So it's a good time to begin to assess some of those things.
The parents or the babies sometimes have to renegotiate the relationship, they go from being boyfriend, girlfriend, husband and wife to now to being parents and everything that let into and so, there are lot of stresses and strains. We tend to neglect mental health a lot of time when we are going through stresses and strains and I think people generally tend to think a lot about their physical health. It's not you because you can't -- it's not like a broken leg where you can see what the problem is. Mental health is something that we'll experience but it's difficult to say where it is. You know something that happens in our mind is difficult, more difficult for us to understand and something physical, a rash that we can look at as a sign where a leg that's been broken.
So that's what mental health is, it sometimes hard to think about and recognized and yet, all the time we'll love this experiencing emotions and are being affected by what's going around us. So one way of preparing for parenthood is to really give some thought to what's going to happen and antenatal classes are often a good way of beginning to prepare the parenthood and give some thought of things.
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