More engagement and support for fathers and non-birth parents through pregnancy and early parenthood will help improve women's health and recovery, and benefit whole families and communities, says Jesuit Social Services.
In its submission to the Senate Select Committee on Women's Health, Jesuit Social Services focuses on four areas for progress:
- Transforming restrictive masculine norms and re-framing the narrative around men and care
- Father-inclusive and father-specific practice in perinatal and early parenting services
- Perinatal mental health support for fathers
- Family violence screening, prevention and early intervention initiatives that engage fathers
"Women's health and recovery after birth depend on more than the care women receive – they also depend on whether care is shared," says Jesuit Social Services CEO Julie Edwards.
"When fathers share the unpaid care and the mental load and co-parent from the start, it's better for women, better for families and better for communities. Support for fathers should complement – never replace – better care for mothers and birth parents."
Jesuit Social Services' Man Box 2024 research shows restrictive ideas about what it means to be a man remain a barrier to some men's involvement in care.
Around two in five Australian men aged 18 to 45 feel pressure to be the ones to bring money home. More than a quarter say society tells them that boys shouldn’t cook, clean or take care of younger children and, about one in seven to one in five personally agree with those messages.
"These norms box men in. They narrow what it means to be a dad and make it harder for men to ask for help," says Sam Ware, Executive Director, The Men's Project at Jesuit Social Services.
"Our submission calls for a long-term national program that opens up more ways to be a man and a dad, centred on care, connection and shared responsibility.”
The submission also highlights that pregnancy and early parenting services are still largely built around mothers. Fathers have reported not feeling welcome at first-time parent groups, and midwives have reported a lack of training and confidence in engaging fathers.
"Fathers should be routinely invited into antenatal, postnatal and early parenting services, unless their participation is unsafe, and recognised as clients in their own right," Sam says.
"That gives services the chance to support dads' own wellbeing and to act early on risk, always with women's and children's safety at the centre."
It is estimated that up to 10 per cent of fathers experience perinatal depression and 5 to 15 per cent experience perinatal anxiety. The submission calls for routine mental health screening for fathers, using tools that reflect how distress often shows in men. It also calls for safe, co-designed approaches to identifying family violence risk during pregnancy and early parenthood, guided by specialist family violence services and victim-survivors.
Jesuit Social Services has made 11 recommendations to the Committee and welcomes the opportunity to give evidence before the inquiry. The full submission is available at https://jss.org.au/policy-submissions/submission-to-the-select-committee-on-womens-health/
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