The effects of the infant massage on fathers at childbirth.

Literature highlighted that changes, both physical and emotional, experienced by women during the transition to parenthood may constitute risk factors during the perinatal period. Recently, more attention has been paid to the effects of this phase on the father, and preliminary studies have indicated an increased stress related to the parental role, and a decrease in dyadic adjustment. These elements may lead toward a caregiving system represented by the risk for parent-infant interaction and infant development. In light of these studies, early intervention programs are fundamental. Infant Massage (IM) has been described as able to promote the parental ability to understand the baby’s cues, reducing the risk due to the post-partum stage. To the best of our knowledge, no studies have investigated the impact of IM on fathers at childbirth. Our goal is to observe whether IM taught to fathers can have an effect on their emotional state (i.e., depressive risk, parental stress, dyadic adjustment and perception of social support). The research consists in three distinct phases in which were involved twenty-five father-child pairs. In the first step (T1, Pre-intervention) and in the third step (T3, Post-intervention) data were collected through the following self-report: EPDS, PSI-SF, DAS, ICQ and MSPSS. The second step (T2 - Intervention) is represented by four meetings in which the fathers were trained to touch the baby through the massage sequences. Findings show a decrease in average score at EPDS and PSI-SF as well an increase in average score at DAS, and MSPSS. IM seems to be a valuable early intervention able to act on those variables that can affect the adjustment of the father to the new parental role.