Expectant and new fathers seek more support to improve maternal health
2025-03-24
(Press-News.org) PHILADELPHIA (March 24, 2025) – A new Penn Nursing study reveals that expectant and new fathers, particularly Black American fathers, express a significant need for more resources and support to better assist mothers during pregnancy and childbirth. The research, published in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, highlights a gap in tailored information and resources for fathers within healthcare and social service systems.
Researchers conducted focus groups with eighty new fathers across the United States, with the majority (86%) being Black American, to understand their needs and experiences. The study identified four key areas where fathers sought information and resources: baby and maternal health, financial planning, navigating healthcare systems, and mental health support for both parents.
"Fathers play a crucial role in supporting maternal health, but they often feel underserved by existing systems," said lead-author Derek M. Griffith, PhD, the Risa Lavizzo-Mourey Population Health and Health Equity University Professor in Penn Nursing’s Department of Family and Community Health; Professor in the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy in the Perelman School of Medicine; and a Fellow and Senior Advisor on Health Equity and Anti-Racism in The Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. "Our findings emphasize the importance of developing targeted interventions and resources that address the specific needs of fathers, particularly within communities experiencing racial disparities in maternal mortality."
The study found that fathers sought information on various topics, including their financial responsibilities, and being supportive partners and caregivers. However, many felt that healthcare and social service systems lacked resources that considered their needs. The researchers concluded that expectant and new fathers need better access to reliable, accurate, and readily available information to prepare and support them in their new roles.
Co-authors include Emily C. Jaeger and Perri Pepperman, both from the Department of Health Management & Policy at the Georgetown University School of Health; Karen A. Chustz from the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality; Deborah Frazier and Amber Wilson, both from the National Healthy Start Association. This study was funded by a grant to the National Healthy Start Association from HRSA (U7BMC33635).
# # #
About the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing) is one of the world’s leading nursing schools. It has been ranked the #1 nursing school in the U.S. by QS University for a decade. Our Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) is among the top-ranked programs in the nation, according to the 2025 U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges rankings. Penn Nursing also consistently earns high rankings in U.S. News & World Report’s annual list of best graduate schools and is a top recipient of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for nursing research. Penn Nursing prepares nurse scientists and nurse leaders to meet the health needs of a global society through innovation in research, education, and practice. Follow Penn Nursing on: Facebook, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, & Instagram.
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2025-03-24
FRANKFURT. In the shallow waters of the Lighthouse Reef Atoll, located 80 kilometers off the coast of the small Central American country of Belize, the seabed suddenly drops steeply. Resembling a dark blue eye surrounded by coral reefs, the “Great Blue Hole” is a 125-meter-deep underwater cave with a diameter of 300 meters, which originated thousands of years ago from a karst cave located on a limestone island. During the last ice age, the cave’s roof collapsed. As ice sheets melted and global sea level started to rise, the cave ...
2025-03-24
UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL MONDAY, MARCH 24, 2025 (3:00 PM U.S. Eastern time)
Pedestrian crossings generally showcase the best in pedestrian behaviour, with people naturally forming orderly lanes as they cross the road, smoothly passing those coming from the opposite direction without any bumps or scrapes. Sometimes, however, the flow gets chaotic, with individuals weaving through the crowd on their own haphazard paths to the other side.
Now, an international team of mathematicians, co-led by Professor Tim Rogers at the University of Bath in the UK and Dr Karol Bacik at MIT in ...
2025-03-24
The longest organic molecules identified to date on Mars have recently been detected by scientists from the CNRS1, together with their colleagues from France, the United States of America, Mexico and Spain. These long carbon chains, containing up to 12 consecutive carbon atoms, could exhibit features similar to the fatty acids produced on Earth by biological activity2. The lack of geological activity and the cold, arid climate on Mars have helped preserve this invaluable organic matter in a clay-rich sample for the past 3.7 billion years. It therefore dates from the period during which life first emerged on Earth. These findings ...
2025-03-24
Next time you cross a crowded plaza, crosswalk, or airport concourse, take note of the pedestrian flow. Are people walking in orderly lanes, single-file, to their respective destinations? Or is it a haphazard tangle of personal trajectories, as people dodge and weave through the crowd?
MIT instructor Karol Bacik and his colleagues studied the flow of human crowds and developed a first-of-its-kind way to predict when pedestrian paths will transition from orderly to entangled. Their findings may help inform the design of public spaces that promote safe and efficient thoroughfares.
In a paper appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy ...
2025-03-24
New Haven, Conn. — Most job candidates know to dress nicely for Zoom interviews and to arrange a professional-looking background for the camera. But a new Yale study suggests they also ought to test the quality of their microphones.
A tinny voice caused by a cheap mic, researchers say, could sink their chances.
Through a series of experiments, the study demonstrates that tinny speech — a thin, metallic sound — during video conferences can have surprisingly deep social consequences, leading listeners to lower their judgments of a speaker’s intelligence, credibility, and romantic desirability. ...
2025-03-24
A team of biologists at Queen Mary University of London has discovered that a neurohormone controlling appetite in humans has an ancient evolutionary origin, dating back over half a billion years. The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, reveal that this satiety-inducing molecule, known as bombesin, is not only present in humans and other vertebrates but also in starfish and their marine relatives.
Bombesin, a small peptide, plays a key role in regulating hunger by signalling when we’ve had enough to eat. But its story doesn’t start with humans or even mammals. New research shows that ...
2025-03-24
By Leah Shaffer
The cells in human bodies are subject to both chemical and mechanical forces. But up until recently, scientists have not understood much about how to manipulate the mechanical side of that equation. That’s about to change.
“This is a major breakthrough in our ability to be able to control the cells that drive fibrosis,” according to Guy Genin, the Harold and Kathleen Faught Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, speaking of research recently published in Nature Materials.
Fibrosis is an affliction wherein ...
2025-03-24
Imagine trying to listen to a friend speak over the commotion of a loud party. It is difficult to detect and process sounds in noisy environments, especially for those with hearing loss. Previous research has typically focused on how competing sounds influence cortical brain activity, with the end goal of informing treatment strategies for people who are hard of hearing. But in a new eNeuro study, Melissa Polonenko and Ross Maddox, from the University of Rochester, explored a lesser-studied influence of competing sounds on subcortical brain ...
2025-03-24
The high comorbidity of type 2 diabetes (T2D) with psychiatric or neurodegenerative disorders points to a need for understanding what links these diseases. A potential link is the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The ACC supports behaviors related to cognition and emotions and is involved in some T2D-associated diseases, like mood disorders and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). James Hyman and colleagues, from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, used a rat model of T2D that affects only males to explore whether diabetes affects ACC activity and behavior. Their work is featured in JNeurosci’s ...
2025-03-24
Embargoed for release: Monday, March 24, 12:00 PM ET
Key points:
Maintaining a healthy diet rich in plant-based foods, with low to moderate intake of healthy animal-based foods and lower intake of ultra-processed foods, was linked to a higher likelihood of healthy aging—defined as reaching age 70 free of major chronic diseases, with cognitive, physical, and mental health maintained—according to a 30-year study of food habits among more than 105,000 middle-aged adults.
All the eight dietary patterns studied were associated with healthy aging, suggesting that there is no one-size-fits-all healthy diet.
The study is among the ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Expectant and new fathers seek more support to improve maternal health
