Study Finds Pregnancy Makes Dads Fat

December 17, 2001 8:27 am EST

CANBERRA (Reuters) - First-time dads-to-be are prone to put on weight and reach for the bottle during their partner's pregnancy rather than after the baby is born, according to an Australian study documenting a form of male pre-natal depression.

A three-year study by the Adelaide-based Flinders Medical Centre (FMC) found on average men put on 3.5 pounds and one in seven started to drink a dangerous amount of alcohol before the baby's birth to counteract stress and less sex.

"This was surprising because it was expected that the fathers would be more likely to feel anxious after the baby was born than before," FMC researcher Carolyn Corkindale told Reuters.

"Men get stressed and depressed because they are not prepared for the changes to their lifestyle, they have poor role models and are neglected during pregnancy."

The study of 312 men in Sydney and Adelaide, aged 18 to 40, found 5.2 percent of men were depressed and anxious before the birth, declining to 3.7 percent when their baby was a year old.

This mirrored the depression scores for women with 14.8 percent depressed after 23 weeks of pregnancy dropping to 8.9 percent when the baby was 12 months old.

Half of the men -- 52 percent -- reported their sexual activity was lower than they expected by the time their baby was one year old after a dramatic decline during pregnancy.

That was cited as one of the main triggers for pre-natal stress.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2001