Perhaps you’ve noticed the relationship between your partner’s mental health and your own, particularly at extremes. When one partner is suffering severe depression, for instance, it’s no surprise that it would affect their significant other and any kids.
However, a new study suggests that there may be a relationship between the mental health of a dad-to-be and the pregnancy carrying his child. Specifically, dads who have the support they need and higher resilience scores seem to reduce the risk of their partners’ pregnancies ending in premature birth.
The study’s results raise many new questions to be answered in further examination, but for now, the data seem to suggest that a critical step in protecting the unborn may be supporting the mental health of dads.
Some Important Caveats
This study is a single data point, and it was conducted on a relatively small sample. The connections made are essential, but much more information and analysis of the results are still needed.
Pregnancies end early for a lot of reasons. Mothers may have health problems that make it impossible to carry the pregnancy to term, for instance. Some illnesses can affect pregnancy, and preeclampsia can require an early induction or c-section.
There is already a lot of stigma around pregnancy health conditions, and no research data should be taken as an excuse to place blame or point fingers at parents. Pregnancy and parenting can be hard work and stressful, and there are too many factors beyond anyone’s control for data from this or any other study to make it worse.
So, What Did The Study Find?
The study was examining maternal systemic inflammation, a known risk factor for preterm birth and low birth weight. They measured this through a metric called C-reactive protein, or CRP. The liver produces this protein in response to inflammation, so it’s an accessible way to measure this specific aspect of pregnancy health.
Researchers examined data for 217 couples, including CRP levels, marital status, and four mental health factors: social support, self-esteem, mastery (a sense of control over life circumstances), and optimism.
Since inflammation can be connected to stress, it would make rational sense to find that moms with low social support, or with a feeling that the world was spiraling out of control, might have higher CRP levels — but instead, the study found a connection to dads’ mental health.
What’s The Connection?
Notably, the connection appeared only among married couples, not among unmarried pairs, even when the mom and dad were living together.
In married couples, when the dad was lacking in those four mental health factors we mentioned — social support, mastery, self-esteem, and optimism — the mothers had higher CRP levels. Researchers concluded that supporting these resilience factors in dads could improve health outcomes during pregnancy, including increasing the likelihood that a mom will carry the pregnancy to term.
Surprisingly, the study did not find that the same resilience factors in mothers were directly associated with CRP levels or pregnancy outcomes. However, there’s already plenty of data showing that maternal stress can affect pregnancy health.
What Should Parents Take From This?
Dads, if you’re struggling, this can be your sign to get some support.
That might mean seeking mental health care, or it might mean finding a social support system. It might mean opening up to friends or family. Maybe it just means giving yourself a little more self-care and understanding, or maybe it means admitting to your doctor that your stress levels are too high.
It doesn’t mean that you’re to blame if your wife gave birth prematurely, but it does mean that taking care of your own mental health is a gift not only to yourself, but to your family.