Dads in Distress: symptoms of depression and traumatic stress in fathers following poor fetal, neonatal, and maternal outcomes

BACKGROUND: This study aims to explore the prevalence of symptoms of depression and traumatic stress in fathers in the setting of poor fetal, neonatal, and maternal outcomes. METHODS: A prospective mixed-methods study was conducted at an outer metropolitan public teaching hospital in Brisbane, Australia, with quantitative results presented here. Subjects included 28 fathers whose male partners had experienced pregnancy or childbirth complicated by a significant congenital abnormality or aneuploidy, termination of pregnancy, fetal death in-utero, stillbirth, admission to the neonatal intensive care unit or special care nursery or significant maternal morbidity, such as a postpartum haemorrhage or an emergency postpartum hysterectomy. These experiences were classified into two groups: anticipatory (time to prepare) and sudden (no warning). The fathers were screened using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and the Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R) to assess subjective distress at 2-3 weeks (timepoint 1) and 3-4 months (timepoint 2) after the event. RESULTS: Data for both the EPDS and IES-R scales was available for 26 fathers (92.9%) at timepoint 1 and for 15 fathers (53.6%) at timepoint 2. High overall EPDS scores (≥10) were noted in 16/27 (59.3%) fathers at timepoint 1 and 6/15 fathers (40.0%) at timepoint 2. High overall IES-R scores ≥33 were noted in 12/26 (46.2%) fathers at timepoint 1 and 4/15 fathers (26.7%) at timepoint 2. A higher percentage of fathers who experienced anticipatory events had EPDS and IES-R score above these cut-offs at timepoint 1 (8/13 or 61.5%) compared to those experiencing sudden events (8/14 or 57.1%), however, percentages were similar between groups at time point 2 (2/7 or 28.6%% and 4/8 or 50.0%, respectively). More fathers who experienced anticipatory events had IES-R scores ≥33 at timepoint 1 (7/13 or 53.8%) compared to those experiencing sudden events (5/14 or 38.0%). CONCLUSION: Our study indicates high rates of distress in fathers exposed to poor fetal, neonatal, and maternal outcomes, which can persist for months after the event. Increased support for fathers in this setting may be required to prevent poor mental health. Further research on the long-term effects of these adverse events is warranted. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12884-022-05288-5.