A comparison of childbirth class attendance and presence at delivery and father-infant acquaintance/attachment

The relationship between parent and child is one of the most important and most studied of all human relationships. The purpose of this descriptive study was to compare first-time fathers’ attendance at an entire series of prepared childbirth classes and presence at the delivery with father-infant acquaintance/attachment at three to four months post-birth. First-time fathers living with the infant’s mother were asked to complete the How I Feel About My Baby Now scale and a demographic survey. Two groups of fathers were compared. The first group attended classes, and the other group did not attend classes. Results of a statistical analysis utilizing descriptive statistics, t-tests, and one way ANOVA indicated that fathers who attended the classes felt significantly more angry at their babies than those who did not, and that fathers in the group under 30 years of age felt more playful toward their babies than those over thirty years