DAD BRAIN IS REAL - PHYSICAL CHANGES OF MEN WHEN THEY BECOME DADS
Becoming a dad is a big transition for a man too. The moment a baby is born, the dad is born too - a new role, new identity, new responsibility. Recent studies show that men experience physical changes in their brain and hormones too when they become a dad. So, let’s have a closer look.
Hormonal Changes in Dads
When a woman becomes pregnant her hormones change. These changes are not only important to keep the pregnancy and to birth the baby but also to prepare the woman for motherhood.
Nature hasn’t forgotten men.
Testosterone
Research shows that men’s testosterone levels decline during pregnancy (Edelstein et al., 2017). If you are a man reading this you might not like this at first but let me reassure you that it doesn’t take away from your masculinity and let me explain why this is a good thing in early fatherhood.
Testosterone is actually unfavorable for parenting efforts. Dads with lower basal testosterone levels tend to be more engaged with their children. It helps a new dad to be more likely to soothe their baby when they cry and respond to their needs.
However, the downregulation of testosterone levels after birth depends on the involvement of the dad with the baby. The more involved a dad is, the greater is the downregulation and the more likely he is to engage with his baby.
Oxytocin
Oxytocin is the love and bonding hormone. Mums have a high peak in oxytocin levels after they give birth to their baby and experience an increase when they breastfeed which helps mums to bond with their baby amongst other things. So, what about dads who don’t get these natural oxytocin increases?
Studies have shown that “levels of Oxytocin, another hormone related to parenting (Feldman & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2017), increased over the first six months of fatherhood and after stimulatory play (Abraham & Feldman, 2018).”
The rise in Oxytcoin - and with that the bonding benefits - depend on how much the dad interacts with his baby. Skin-to-skin, playing and responding to baby’s cues increases the levels of the bonding hormone in dads.
Vasopressin
Dads also experience a higher sensitivity to vasopressin, another hormone linked to bonding that also affects the neural and behaviour response to sounds of newborn crying (Alyousefi-Van Dijk et al., 2019; Thijssen et al., 2018).
Prolactin
Prolactin is a very important hormone for breastfeeding and rises in new mums after they give birth of their baby.
Prolactin levels in dads rise in the first weeks postpartum too. “…elevated prolactin levels in new fathers most probably contribute to child-caring behavior and facilitate behavioral and emotional states attributed to child care.” (J Postgrad Med. ).
Brain Changes in Dads
You might have heard of baby brain or mum brain but did you know that dad brain is real too?
A woman’s brain starts to rewire in pregnancy priming her to take care of her baby.
New research shows that dads experience brain changes too. The rewiring of the brain however only starts after the baby is born and is induced by caregiving experiences. That means that the adaption of the brain that helps dads to bond and care for their babies depends on proximity and interaction with their baby.
Conclusion
Dads experience hormonal and brain changes too. These changes help dads to be more empathetic, bond with their newborns, react to their crying and care for them. The more involved a dad is with his newborn, the greater are the effects.
I think this is very encouraging. I talk to many dads who feel discouraged and sad because they don’t feel that instant bond or feel a bit disconnected to their newborn. The good news is that if you as a dad spend time with your baby, have skin-to-skin, change their diapers or play with them with time you will feel more and more connected.
It’s a lupe: You care for your baby - you stimulate hormonal & brain changes - these changes lead to more engagement with your baby - you care more for your baby - you stimulate changes - …
So can I just encourage you, dad, to spend time with your new family in the first weeks postpartum.
If you don’t know how to prepare for the postpartum period so that you have the time to bond with your baby, reach out for a postpartum planning and education session with me where I teach parents how to have and how to prepare for a peaceful postpartum that supports recovery, breastfeeding and bonding with their baby.
Sources
Hashemian, F et al. “Regulatory role of prolactin in paternal behavior in male parents: A narrative review.” Journal of postgraduate medicine vol. 62,3 (2016): 182-7. doi:10.4103/0022-3859.186389
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