Do men need postpartum support?

What kind of support OP?
They have access to counselling services and GPs as much as anyone else does.
I mean I didn’t get extra support- nor did my husband- when our first was stillborn at full term and I almost died. There was SANDS or Facebook groups or bereavement counselling we could seek out ourselves.
Sane when we had our second - this time severely disabled DD. I mean the same in that there wasn’t support of any kind for us - there were appointments for DD to have treatment and dietician input but nothing other than you’d expect.
If you mean emotionally then.. that’s between the couple and their friends or family surely?
Maybe some men and some women need support emotionally from partners or family but is that what you meant?
Surely in most circumstances the woman needs to physically heal and recuperate while the child’s father doesn’t need that (even if he can or does do night feeds)…?

As a PP said, men don't need postpartum support because they are never postpartum. Do they need training/upport on how to support their partner when she is post partum, yes that might be helpful.

Do they need support with the changes that come with having a baby in your life and the effects that may have on relationships? Possibly, but largely I think in terms of men gaining greater understanding of for example, PND, birth injuries, breast feeding, so that they can offer support or know here to seek assitance.

To be honest I agree with this. Women get fuck all support and we really could use some when we've just had a baby. There should be a class for some men to teach them that of course a woman is going to be far more focused on their newborn baby than them and that's the way it should be. And that acting like a petulant twat because she isn't up for sex straight away isn't going to change that fact.

Yes! I hate hearing ‘men can get PND too!’ No they bloody well cannot, it is a specific type of depression exclusively for women who have recently given birth. They may get depression yes, but it is certainly not PND.

As for support, as pp say they could probably use more in terms of how they spot PND or other issues with their partner and how they can get her help. Support just in terms of how hard it is with baby and life changes etc, not so much, it’s just a fact of life they have to work through the same as women who generally get zero support for the same thing because just finding the life change difficult is not in itself a MH issue.

A male friend of DH recently had to deal with his partner dealing with post natal psychosis which was awful for him of course and he got help from his GP as was appropriate. The help from HV and the post natal MH team was quite rightly focused on the mother.

I think men need much more support on how to recognise and what to expect if their partners get post natal depression and/or other post birth issues. Whether it would do any good, god knows. I haven't got much faith in men generally, but it wouldn't do any harm.

Idk. I feel like they need less “OMG you changed a nappy what a hero you’re so hands-on!!!!!” Maybe we need to get support for women right first as they’re closer to the centre of the circle, and men need to be trained to dump outside the circle more.

I think they do need support. I was a mess postpartum and my husband had to look after me, a baby and the house/pets while constantly having the "I don't know how to make you better" look helplessly plastered on his face. I felt awful for him. Then he had to leave us and go to work after four weeks, worry about us all day then come home to a crying wife basically throwing the baby at him. Awful.

I can't stand all this women have to suffer so fuck the husbands! Attitude. It's gross.

Woah. No one said any of that to me!

They should get as much support as women get fuck all told to buck up what were you expecting things to be like of course babies cry were you expecting full conversation fresh out the womb sneers

But that won't happen because they are men

Not sure. My viewpoint is probably clouded by domestic abuse. I always remember when DC2 was about a week old, exDP called me a "wet blanket" because he wanted to drive us all to a shopping centre/mall and I said it was too much too soon. DC1 wouldn't have enjoyed it anyway - they were still under 2.

He was a narcissist. Obviously this is the type of thing a narcissist does, but perhaps if he had had to some 'training' on how to deal with the first few weeks after a baby's birth and what the mother is going through etc, he might have realized just how extremely ridiculous his suggestion was. But then again, he was a narcissist and therefore didn't want to be considerate.

I almost died in childbirth as my husband watched. He then had to take care of our newborn as I was in ICU for a period of time. It was the worst thing that ever happened to us. In the hospital, some nurses cracked jokes about having never seen a dad alone on the maternity ward before, others just ignored him. Some were absolutely fantastic support.
Once we were home, no one (midwife/health visitors) asked him how he was, even after we talked about what happened. And it was then that I realised they just follow a script. They weren't actually listening to a word we said once they'd ticked the relevant boxes.

So, yes, I do believe some fathers need support after their babies are born.

Not postpartum because they aren't postpartum- that means a woman who has recently given birth. They also don't get post natal depression because that's also something only mums can get. Whether they need support with the change in their life circumstances is a different question- they don't need it from their postpartum partners anyway!

I think that childbirth/looking after a baby is very stressful. Many situations in life are very stressful. If you both have good coping mechanisms for stress, practise good communication with your partner even when you are feeling less enthusiastic about them, and don't take out your feelings on other people, you and your partner have a much better chance of sailing through (PND aside).

So I would suggest that working on these things before the baby is born would be better.