Becoming a parent for the first time can be scary. There are so many things to think about. While every parent goes through a lot, what to expect as a new dad can be particularly hard to figure out. Fathers often don't have the same love-at-first-sight experience with their babies as mothers do, in part because they don't have the same experience of pregnancy. Dads experience overwhelming emotions when their child is born, but don't exactly feel warm and fuzzy at first. Fathers are an essential part of the care team during labor and delivery at the Family Birth Center. They provide important emotional support for their partner. When fathers are actively involved with their children, children do better,” says Paul Amato, PhD, a sociologist who studies parent-child relationships at Pennsylvania State University. “Research suggests that fathers are important for a child's development.

Dads experience hormonal changes, too. Pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding all cause hormonal changes in mothers. However, researchers have found that men also undergo hormonal changes when they become fathers. 

Dads develop their bond with their baby by communicating, caring and playing (Feldman et al, 2010). As your baby develops with smiles, laughter and babbling, a true two-way relationship starts to develop. It's important for dads to practice skin-to-skin contact, too. It helps with bonding and can help dads feel more confident in their new role.  It can take on average six months to reach this point but it will happen

Fathers provide a positive male role model for their children and help to promote/reinforce good behaviors. As a result, children with more involved fathers tend to have fewer behavioral and impulse control problems, longer attention spans and a higher level of sociability. Dads should remind children of the consequences of their actions and positively acknowledge desirable behavior. Young men learn from their dads about what it means to be responsible, ethical, caring, and appropriate. More specifically, a teenage boy watches how his dad treats women, uses his physical strength, values his work, relates to kids, and expresses friendship with his mates. Be your childs role model. Whether they realize it or not, fathers are role models to their kids.

In a US study, researchers actually found that dads brains change more when they parent a girl and discovered that fathers have different brain responses when they interact with their toddler daughters than they do when they play with their toddler sons. Men start to become emotionally more responsible for the well-being of their babies. This is one of the major positive changes in men after they become fathers. In fact, taking care of a baby reshapes the man's brain much like a mom's except for the feeding part.

Some men wanted children simply because they regarded themselves as family person or potentially a good father, and someone who could 'have a lot to give to a child'. If you think about it, one of the easiest things a male can do is become a biological father. Being a dad doesn't just mean being strong; it also means being loving and affectionate.

IT'S SO EASY TO BECOME A DAD, BUT HARDER TO BECOME A FATHER.