Marc Wilson from the Victoria University School of Psychology explains what men go through as new dads and how that's different from mothers.
He says that quite reasonably, women are the focus.That said, men are overlooked in most aspects of well-being, and are less willing to talk about well-being anyway.
Very few men are diagnosed with postpartum PTSD, but there aren't a lot of women either. International reviews suggest maybe no more than 6% of mothers would qualify (and fewer than that are actually diagnosed) and fathers around half of that. Marc Wilson says to be diagnosed you need someone to either notice there's a problem, or to ask for help!
Men do experience stress at the change in the nature of their responsibility, but that isn't enough for a diagnosis of PTSD. In fact, that's more likely to generate anxiety and/or depression. maybe as many as a quarter of mothers experience postpartum depression, but about 10% of men.
Prof Wilson suspects that the challenges for new fathers and new mothers are similar, but men are less well-prepared for them, and we have different expectations for women and men.
