How men feel about fatherhood?

If you ask young fathers, how men feel after the birth of their first baby, they will probably tell you happy, impressed and a bit stressed. But it seems like it’s not only that.

We may not expect that a man will ever tell us that after becoming a father he started feeling attractive. However, recent research shows that’s exactly what happens!

How men feel after the birth of their baby? – The Results

Experts have gathered data from 182 couples, in different time frames of their lives. From the moment they got married, one year after and two years after. 42 of the couples have had a baby within two years time.

All participants were asked to rate themselves on how attractive they felt they were on a scale from 1 (not attractive at all) to 100 (super attractive that reaches perfection). Also, they were asked to give one more rating. How they feel about themselves, on a scale 1 to 5.

Men that did not have babies scored the same rating in all three stages of their lives. It did not really matter if they were not married or they were single. This is strong evidence that getting married is not considered a life changing event for most men. They think it’s important, since it is a serious commitment, but they can continue to have the same kind of lifestyle they used to have. Going out, partying, travelling, and so on. As long as they have their wives with them, that’s no problem.

Results came out to be quite different with men that had children. Young fathers had a significant increase after the birth of their first baby (looking for popular baby names 2014? here’s some cool suggestions for you). However, this burst of self esteem turned out to be temporary, as the attraction assessment of fathers in the second year of having a baby fell a little bit. Still, it’s a remarkable finding that most people didn’t think it was true before.

Other expert researches have shown that in women, things are exactly the opposite. Doctors and analysts have concluded that this has definitely got to do with the change of women’s body. Young mothers go through a tough time after birth in order to get back in shape. So it’s only natural that they don’t feel as sexy and beautiful as she was before having a baby.

Head of research Alicia Cast, professor at UC Santa Barbara, comments. “When I saw the results of the research, I went to my husband and show them to him. He told me that he received extra attention when everybody knew that he just had a baby. For example, ladies told him “awww, such a cute dad!” or “look at that handsome dad with his son”. Women received the same kind of nice comments, but due to the significant body change, they cannot really believe them, so they don’t feel equally attractive.

So ladies, don’t be jealous. Fatherhood turns out to be super sexy! Be proud of your husband as much as you are proud of yourself and your baby. You are all a lovely family and if you stick together as a strong team, you can be really happy and enjoy life as one.