cheryl
Administrator
Staff member
The biology of dads - Aeon
The bodies and brains of fathers, not just mothers, are transformed through the love and labor of raising a child
On a hot summer morning in Atlanta a few years ago, I took my then five-year-old son to his swimming lesson. As we walked toward his pool, we passed a smaller, shallower pool where an infant swim class was underway. I was still trying to wake up, but the class was already in full gear and my attention was drawn to a chorus of motherese (the high-pitched, rhythmic, infant-directed speech known more colloquially as baby talk) arising from the class. Parents were standing in a circle inside the pool, holding their infants in front of them, with the instructor in the centre. I couldn’t help but notice that many of the parents were fathers. Some were a bit chubby, with pale torsos reflecting the bright sunlight. They seemed like ideal infant-caregivers: calm, gentle, patient and sensitive. They didn’t seem like men you would go to battle with. In fact, they were the very antithesis of the warriors and athletes – think Maximus, Achilles or Michael Jordan – often associated with a masculine ideal.
Were the men in the pool just inherently different, born infant-caregivers? Or did the process of becoming a father somehow transform them so that they became better suited to perform this role? We have known for decades that mothers’ bodies and brains are transformed by the dramatic hormonal changes of pregnancy and childbirth. Now, new research is showing that men are also biologically transformed by the experience of becoming an involved father.
The bodies and brains of fathers, not just mothers, are transformed through the love and labor of raising a child
On a hot summer morning in Atlanta a few years ago, I took my then five-year-old son to his swimming lesson. As we walked toward his pool, we passed a smaller, shallower pool where an infant swim class was underway. I was still trying to wake up, but the class was already in full gear and my attention was drawn to a chorus of motherese (the high-pitched, rhythmic, infant-directed speech known more colloquially as baby talk) arising from the class. Parents were standing in a circle inside the pool, holding their infants in front of them, with the instructor in the centre. I couldn’t help but notice that many of the parents were fathers. Some were a bit chubby, with pale torsos reflecting the bright sunlight. They seemed like ideal infant-caregivers: calm, gentle, patient and sensitive. They didn’t seem like men you would go to battle with. In fact, they were the very antithesis of the warriors and athletes – think Maximus, Achilles or Michael Jordan – often associated with a masculine ideal.
Were the men in the pool just inherently different, born infant-caregivers? Or did the process of becoming a father somehow transform them so that they became better suited to perform this role? We have known for decades that mothers’ bodies and brains are transformed by the dramatic hormonal changes of pregnancy and childbirth. Now, new research is showing that men are also biologically transformed by the experience of becoming an involved father.