She leads, he follows - fathers' experiences of a planned home birth. A Swedish interview study

Abstract

Objective: To gain an understanding of fathers' experiences of a planned home birth.

Study design: In-depth interviews were conducted with eight Swedish fathers who had the experience of a total of 23 births, of which 17 were planned home births. The fathers were recruited by the midwives who had assisted with the planned home births. Content analysis was used.

Results: Analysis revealed the main theme "she leads - he follows". The fathers were compliant to the woman's decision; they also described it as a deliberate choice and struggled with feelings of being different in comparison with the established way of becoming a father.

Conclusion: The experience of a planned home birth for the father was a process in which he had to put his own ideas on giving birth aside and carefully follow his woman. Sharing fears and happiness during the process by being compliant to the woman may strengthen the new fatherhood. The fathers' role in the process of making an unconventional choice is an example that could probably be applied to similar situations in pregnancy and childbirth.