Recently, my brother, who was sitting across from me, welcomed his second child and took paternity leave at home.
I'm really happy for him.
However, two days ago, I happened to see a study published in The Lancet Public Health by Katharine M Barry's team at the Sorbonne University in France [1], and a voice suddenly appeared in my ears:
"Hurry up and call him back and tell him not to take paternity leave."
What did I see that would suddenly be so frightened?
Barry's team, which surveyed nearly 23,000 parents of newborns, found that paternity leave for fathers and planned to take two weeks was associated with a 26% and 24% lower risk of postpartum depression, respectively.
But! I was surprised that 2 weeks of paternity leave for fathers was associated with a 13% increased risk of postpartum depression in mothers!!
The researchers believe that the results of this study show that it is necessary to further explore other factors such as the optimal length of paternity leave, the timing of leave, and the purpose of male leave, so as to provide a scientific basis for the development of a more scientific paternity leave system.
Screenshot of the paper
There are a lot of studies that show that there are many benefits to paid paternity leave for men.
For example, it is beneficial to alleviate women's pressure on newborn care responsibilities and to help women gain more and more equal opportunities in employment and career development [2,3]. In addition, paternity leave for men allows newborns to spend more time with both parents and to cope with many problems that may arise during this period, thereby promoting harmony in family relationships and the satisfaction of both parents with social support [4-6]. Some researchers even believe that paid paternity leave for fathers may reduce the risk of postpartum depression in both parents [4].
Based on these benefits, most countries now limit paid paternity leave for men to two weeks.
To further confirm the benefits of paid paternity leave for both parents, Barry's team conducted this large cross-sectional study based on the Etude Longitudinale Française depuis l'Enfance (ELFE) cohort study population in France.
This study included mothers over the age of 18 who had successfully delivered one or two newborns at 33 weeks' gestation in 2011 and conducted face-to-face questionnaires after the birth of the newborns to collect baseline data from both parents.
Two months after the birth of the newborn, the researchers followed up the parents of the newborn by phone, recording whether the father took paternity leave after the birth of the child, and diagnosing whether both parents had symptoms of postpartum depression.
In this study, the mental status of both parents was assessed using the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale [7,8], and postpartum depression was diagnosed with a score of >11 for women and >10 for men [9,10].
The study mainly used statistical methods of logistic regression to assess the association between paternity leave and postnatal depression in both parents. The model adjusted for a large number of possible confounding factors, mainly including the age, nationality, race, education level and occupational level of both parents; the mother's work status, physical and mental health and medical history during pregnancy; and the newborn's sex, birth time, feeding style, gestational age and health status at birth.
After screening, the study included a total of 13,075 eligible neonatal mothers (mean age 30.5 years) and 10,975 neonatal fathers (mean age 32.6 years).
Study populations were included in the flowchart
Surveys two months after birth showed significant differences in the prevalence of postpartum depression between fathers and mothers, depending on the paternity leave of different families. In families where the father of the newborn is on paternity leave, the rate of postpartum depression for the father is 4.5%; In families planning to take paternity leave, the prevalence of fatherhood is 4.8%; In families not on paternity leave, fathers had the highest prevalence at 5.7 per cent. The corresponding prevalence of postpartum depression among mothers was 16.1%, 15.1%, and 15.3%, respectively.
In a multivariately adjusted logistic regression model, fathers who planned to take paternity leave had a 24% lower risk of postpartum depression compared with families whose fathers did not take paternity leave (OR: 0.76, p<0.001), and fathers who took paternity leave had a 26% lower risk of postpartum depression (OR: 0.74, p<0.001).
Surprisingly, mothers in families with fathers who took paternity leave not only did not benefit, but had a 13% increased risk of postpartum depression compared with families whose fathers did not take paternity leave (OR: 1.13, p<0.001).
Adjusted logistic regression results
The Barry team's study is the first to report the potential impact of the paid paternity leave system on the mental health of both parents after childbirth. The findings suggest that two weeks of paid paternity leave may reduce the risk of postpartum depression for fathers.
Barry and his colleagues believe that this may be because paternity leave increases the amount of time fathers are involved in housework, and father's participation in housework helps couples to have a more equal division of labor in parenting and housework, which further reduces the risk of conflict in couples' lives. In addition, men learn and apply parenting knowledge during paternity leave, allowing them to adapt to their new role as fathers faster and better. Finally, paternity changes during paternity leave, such as conscious smoking cessation and alcohol restriction, and increased physical activity are protective factors against postpartum depression [11].
However, the results show that the same paternity leave system not only seems to have no protective effect on women's postpartum depression, but also has the potential to increase their risk of postpartum depression. The researchers believe that this unexpected result may be due to study bias or that two weeks of paternity leave is not enough to have a beneficial effect on the mother's postpartum mental health. Therefore, the researchers suggest that further evaluation is necessary in the future to extend paternity leave (e.g., 30 days) for men to reduce the prevalence of postpartum depression in women.
It should be noted that Barry and his colleagues hinted at a number of other reasons in the discussion that may have influenced the outcome. For example, the actual motivation behind men's paternity leave, and whether men are actually involved in household labor and child care during paternity leave.
It can be imagined that if the father takes advantage of the opportunity to sleep in and play games at home every day, how can the child not be depressed!
Therefore, whether he takes paternity leave or not, the husband should take care of his wife's diet and emotions in addition to taking care of the children and doing all the housework.
Bibliography:
1.Barry KM, Gomajee R, Benarous X, et al. Paternity leave uptake and parental post-partum depression: findings from the ELFE cohort study. Lancet Public Health. 2023;8( 1):e15-e27. doi:10.1016/S2468-2667(22)00288-2
2.Palih A, Solaz A, Tô M. Can daddies learn how to change nappies? Evidence from a short paternity leave policy. https://www.ined.fr/ en/publications/editions/document-travail/can-daddies-learn-howto- change-nappies/ (accessed Feb 2, 2022).
3.World Bank. Parenthood: Examining laws affecting women’s work after having children. 2021. https://wbl.worldbank.org/en/data/exploretopics/wbl_hc?msclkid=623cfc16aeda1ecaefc4f4871b56765 (accessed Jan 15, 2022).
4.Galovan AM, Holmes EK, Schramm DG, Lee TR. Father involvement, father-child relationship quality, and satisfaction with family work: actor and partner influences on marital quality. J Fam Issues 2014; 35: 1846–67.
5.Séjourné N, Vaslot V, BeauméM, Goutaudier N, Chabrol H. The impact of paternity leave and paternal involvement in child care on maternal postpartum depression. J Reprod Infant Psychol 2012; 30: 135–44.
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7.Cox JL, Holden JM, Sagovsky R. Detection of postnatal depression. Development of the 10-item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Br J Psychiatry 1987; 150: 782–86.
8.Edmondson OJ, Psychogiou L, Vlachos H, Netsi E, Ramchandani PG. Depression in fathers in the postnatal period: assessment of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale as a screening measure. J Affect Disord 2010; 125: 365–68.
9.Edmondson OJH, Psychogiou L, Vlachos H, Netsi E, Ramchandani PG. Depression in fathers in the postnatal period: assessment of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale as a screening measure. J Affect Disord 2010; 125: 365–68.
10.Levis B, Negeri Z, Sun Y, Benedetti A, Thombs BD, DEPRESsion Screening Data (DEPRESSD) EPDS group. Accuracy of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) for screening to detect major depression among pregnant and postpartum women: systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant data. BMJ 2020; 371: m4022.
11.Rehel EM. When dad stays home too: paternity leave, gender, and parenting. Gend Soc 2014; 28: 110–32.
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