Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Midwifery journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/midw Lived experiences of Asian fathers during the early postpartum period: Insights from qualitative inquiry Shefaly Shorey, PhD, RN, RM Assistant Professor a, ⁎ , Lina Ang, B.Soc.Sc. (Hon) Research Assistant b , Esther C.L. Goh, PhD Associate Professor c a Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, National University Health System, Singapore b Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore c Department of Social Work, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Asian Fathers Infant Postpartum period Qualitative ABSTRACT Objective: this study aims to understand fathers’ expectations, needs, and experiences in infant care during the early postpartum period in Singapore. Design: a descriptive qualitative study design was adopted. Setting: the study was conducted in a tertiary public hospital in Singapore. Participants: fifty participants (first-time as well as experienced fathers) were recruited from postnatal wards of a public hospital. Findings: thematic analysis was used to analyze the interviews data. Four main themes emerged from the analysis: (1) support system of fathers, (2) paternal involvement in childcare, (3) challenges of fatherhood, and (4) recommendations by fathers. Key conclusion: this study found that the postpartum period is a stressful period for both first-time and experienced fathers. Fathers desired to be involved but were hindered in many ways, such as maternal gatekeeping, work commitments, and a lack of infant care skills. Experienced fathers faced difficulty in assimilating older children with the newborn. Implications for practice: fathers’ needs to be involved in the infant and maternal care activities in the postpartum period. Necessary help from healthcare professionals and policymakers are needed for fathers to assimilate to fatherhood. Introduction In the 21st century, there has been a growing cultural expectation of involved fatherhood due to globalization and a shift to a more egalitarian couple relationship worldwide (LaRossa, 1988; Barclay and Lupton, 1999; Draper, 2003; Deave and Johnson, 2008; Yeung, 2013). Barclay and Lupton termed this as ‘new fatherhood’, in which men are expected to simultaneously be a provider, guide, household help, and nurturer in the contemporary Western society (Barclay and Lupton, 1999, pp. 1013). The expectation of the paternal role has now shifted from solely a provider's role to a role no different than that of the maternal role, and fathers are expected to be more involved in the family. To date, many literatures conducted in Western societies have focused on men's transition to fatherhood in the early postpartum period from three to six months and found that the transition is unrewarding (Barclay and Lupton, 1999), stressful (Bartlett, 2004), and exhausting (Montigny and Lacharité, 2004) for most first-time fathers, and many of them reported that they felt unprepared due to a lack of support and information provided (Deave and Johnson, 2008). According to the role theory, men are expected to act out their socially defined role (St John et al., 2005). However, contemporary fathers are expected to be involved in their family and, at the same time, assume the provider's role. It can be seen that men struggle in their transition to fulfill the expectations of this new fatherhood (St John et al., 2005). Researchers have highlighted the importance of examining transi- tions of the notion of fatherhood within their specific cultural contexts (Barclay and Lupton, 1999; Palkovitz and Palm, 2009), particularly in Asian societies where traditional gender norms such as strict father and nurturing mother, a preference for a male child, and a highly gendered domestic division of labor remain deeply entrenched (Yeung, 2013). Asian fatherhood is also shaped by religions such as Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity, which promote patriarchy that will result in different https://doi.org/10.1016/j.midw.2018.02.009 Received 24 August 2017; Received in revised form 4 January 2018; Accepted 11 February 2018 ⁎ Correspondence to: Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Level 2, Clinical Research Centre, Block MD11, 10 Medical Drive, Singapore 117597, Singapore. E-mail address: nurssh@nus.edu.sg (S. Shorey). Midwifery 60 (2018) 30–35 0266-6138/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. MARK