Supporting women who develop poor postnatal mental health: What support do fathers receive to support their partner and their own mental health?

Abstract Recent interest has been shown regarding support provided for poor maternal postnatal mental health. Fathers appear to play an important role within this support but many feel alienated within maternal services. The current qualitative study aimed to investigate fathers’ experience of support provided to fathers, to help support their partner should she experience poor postnatal mental health. Twenty-five fathers participated in an online questionnaire regarding their experience of their partner’s poor postnatal mental health and the support provided to fathers to help her. Thematic analysis revealed three main themes: ‘Support received to help support their partner’, ‘Support fathers wanted that was not received’ and ‘Father’s mental health’. The results highlight an overall lack of support for many fathers, despite many wanting support on how to help their partner, information on their own mental health and the services available. Fathers specifically wanted healthcare professionals to sign-post them to someone they can talk to for emotional support, and to be taught coping strategies which would help them to support both their partner and baby. The findings from this study suggest that health professionals and perinatal mental health services need a better understanding about what resources fathers need to support the mental health of themselves and their partner.