The Effect of the Educational Program on Iranian Fathers’ Involvement in Infant care: A Randomized Clinical Trial Study

Introduction With the increase in women's employment and change in attitudes towards father’s role in family, father involvement in infant care can indirectly influence the physical health and well being of infant and mother. Materials and Methods This randomized clinical trial study was performed on 150 qualified pregnant women and husbands. During the 35-37 weeks of pregnancy, fathers in fathers’ training group and couples in couples’ training group, participated in two training sessions of healthy infant caring. Fathers in control group received no training and mothers in all three groups received the routine pregnancy training and care. At the end of 4 and 8 weeks after birth, the involvement rate of fathers in infant care questioners were completed by mothers in all three groups. The data were analyzed using Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and SPSS software version 16. Results The total amount of involvement was calculated 55.77 for the fourth week and 62.64 for the eighth week. The average of total involvement rate and three dimensions of direct fatherchild interaction, accessibility and responsibility and providing financial resources in two training groups comparing with that the control group, indicated a significant difference (P≤0.05). Conclusion Training the fathers regarding the infant care led to an increase in the fathers’ involvement dimensions in infant care. Thus, paternal training of this educational program should be considered in pregnancy care programs.