How paternal despression affects the whole family

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Weekends with Joe Ann Brackis. Seriously informative news talk radio. CJA D800.

841. Dr. Tamar Solzes our child psychologist here on Weekends. And this week we're taking a closer look at something I didn't even think existed.

We're talking about what could be described as male postpartum or paternal depression. Again, it's so fascinating to me because I didn't, maybe I'm selfish, I really didn't think about it at the time. Dr. Solzes, thank you so much for taking the time.

Thanks for having me, Joe Ann. I mean, this kind of blew my mind and probably because I was thinking back to when I struggled with postpartum with my two children, I guess you're so wrapped up in everything that is going on.

That we may not be paying close enough attention to what's happening with the dads.

Yes, absolutely. And to be honest, women aren't getting enough support from their perinatal experiences. And so absolutely, of course, our partners are the ones who see us most.

And if women are also experiencing their own challenges, it is very easy for men to not be seen and they're not generally sharing their experiences on the whole.

Yeah. And let's have a closer look at these numbers. Right. So this is a study in 2026. So what are we talking about? Who in particular?

Yes. So a recent study looked at over a million fathers. So we really are getting a sense of what men are experiencing in this postnatal experience. And what they found was that this experience of depression specifically and stress-related diagnoses after birth didn't happen right after birth.

After birth didn't peak later, more closer to the end of the first year of life for babies. So we're talking about anywhere between eight to 13% of fathers experiencing depression.

When we add postpartum anxiety, which is also common, we're looking at closer to in Canada about 22% of dads.

That's huge. That's huge.

It's huge. And it's a delayed onset that's really important.

And it's interesting because I remember my doctor explaining it to me where I was kind of losing. And I said, I don't understand these feelings.

And she was talking about, of course, all the life changes, but the hormonal, right, this hormonal flush that you that happens is she was trying to describe it almost like puberty, but at a different moment in your life.

And all at once, what do we know about what happens to men because for women, it's because of that a lot that's going on physically as well.

Yes. So there is potentially a hormonal component for men as well. There is a natural shift in their hormones to foster those down a bit.

There's changes that are meant to sort of elicit caregiving experiences. But what appears to be happening is the shift in roles,

the pressure to keep a family functional often men often feel the financial pressure, particularly depending on where they live.

They may have less of a paternity leave. And so they have to leave the nest of home earlier. And when we combine financial pressure with sleep deprivation and the strain that happens on couples generally during this period of time.

They're not sexy time. Those are not sexy times.

No. And these strength strains accumulate over time. And that's potentially why we're seeing this delayed onset.

And your notes, it's interesting is one of the things that popped up right away was something, something a feeling of invisibility. Can you explain how that comes together for the fathers?

Yes. I think anyone who's experienced what people do when you have a baby and everyone kind of pushes you aside. And let me see the baby. Let me hold the baby.

And to some degree, there is some cultural importance put on caretaking of the mother.

You know, let me hold the baby if I you go shower or hopefully if we have a circle of support. But for men that becomes even less visible for them, they become more invisible or at least they certainly feel that way.

So they feel that in this system, everyone is focusing on mom and baby. And that leaves dad's feeling unsupported. And to some degree, this is happening in doctors offices too in the sense that follow ups are asking how is baby and how are you feeling mom and maybe even giving a screener for depression and anxiety.

And dad are often left unsupported and an SS. And we know that in general, men are not chatty cathes when it comes to their feelings. And if you add all this pressure on top of it, they're probably even more quiet about it.

Let's you also write that supporting fathers mental health is prevented of care for for them and the family. Can you explain that?

Yes, exactly. We know that partners influence each other in terms of their mental health. And when the dads feel supported, everyone benefits in the same way that the entire system benefits when any one of those members is functioning well.

So if we can focus on how to make a family system thrive and take that lens of a family system and include dads in that, then everyone will do better.

And it's interesting because I know that when I was struggling with it, and I've heard this from my friends who went through postpartum, there's this immense sense of failure, right? Because you're thinking, I'm not supposed to be feeling like this. I'm not, this is not the way that this is supposed to go.

And we know anecdotally that men internalize a feeling of failure in a much sort of harsher way in when it comes to their traditional male roles. I wonder if that has some kind of an impact there.

Yes, there is so much about how we culturally view the roles of men and dads and the difficulty we have as a culture, allowing space for men to hold feelings, something we've talked about before as well.

It's so critical because if we society make space for feelings to be shared and talked about in that not being mocked, whether it's an athlete, you know, talking about their experience.

When we make space for these feelings, it helps people feel less pressure to hold it all together, so to speak.

Because we're starting to normalize postpartum for women, and we're just barely scratching the surface there, so I can't even imagine the darkness that this is all in for the father.

So interesting, such a very, very interesting chat to have about men and postpartum. I didn't even realize, I didn't even realize, I didn't even think about it.

Dr. Tamara Solz, you can follow her on Instagram as well, lots of great tips and interviews as well. Thank you so much for joining us. Have a great long weekend.

Thank you, you too. All right, it is eight to 48. You can start sending in those celebrations, 5147, I know, 0800. We'll get to them after Bill Brownsing, who's coming up with a look at season two of your friends and neighbors that John Ham series love John Ham, love John Ham, as well as a look at head at two at tonight's SNL. You're listening to CJ D800.

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