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A relational investigation of Israeli gay fathers’ experiences of surrogacy, early parenthood, and mental health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

Perinatal distress affects approximately 10% of fathers, but little is known about how gay fathers experience the challenges surrounding childbirth and early parenting of a child. This study explored gay fathers’ experiences of having a baby via transnational surrogacy, raising that baby as a gay pa...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Kelly, Hannah Kate, Geller, Shulamit, Swami, Viren, Shenkman, Geva, Levy, Sigal, Ridge, Damien
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9956003/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36827339
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282330
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author Kelly, Hannah Kate
Geller, Shulamit
Swami, Viren
Shenkman, Geva
Levy, Sigal
Ridge, Damien
author_facet Kelly, Hannah Kate
Geller, Shulamit
Swami, Viren
Shenkman, Geva
Levy, Sigal
Ridge, Damien
author_sort Kelly, Hannah Kate
collection PubMed
description Perinatal distress affects approximately 10% of fathers, but little is known about how gay fathers experience the challenges surrounding childbirth and early parenting of a child. This study explored gay fathers’ experiences of having a baby via transnational surrogacy, raising that baby as a gay parent, and the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 15 Israeli men to understand their experiences of surrogacy and early parenthood, focusing on the impact on their mental health and the relational factors involved. Secondary narrative analysis revealed that fathers constructed surrogacy as a perilous quest that required strong intentionality to undertake. The first year of parenthood was conceptualised alternately as a joyful experience and/or one that challenged fathers’ identities and mental health. A relational framework was applied to better conceptualise the fathers’ narratives, revealing that actual connections—and the potentials for links—considerably shaped experiences of surrogacy, perinatal distress and recovery. Implications for research and policy are discussed.
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spelling pubmed-99560032023-02-25 A relational investigation of Israeli gay fathers’ experiences of surrogacy, early parenthood, and mental health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic Kelly, Hannah Kate Geller, Shulamit Swami, Viren Shenkman, Geva Levy, Sigal Ridge, Damien PLoS One Research Article Perinatal distress affects approximately 10% of fathers, but little is known about how gay fathers experience the challenges surrounding childbirth and early parenting of a child. This study explored gay fathers’ experiences of having a baby via transnational surrogacy, raising that baby as a gay parent, and the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 15 Israeli men to understand their experiences of surrogacy and early parenthood, focusing on the impact on their mental health and the relational factors involved. Secondary narrative analysis revealed that fathers constructed surrogacy as a perilous quest that required strong intentionality to undertake. The first year of parenthood was conceptualised alternately as a joyful experience and/or one that challenged fathers’ identities and mental health. A relational framework was applied to better conceptualise the fathers’ narratives, revealing that actual connections—and the potentials for links—considerably shaped experiences of surrogacy, perinatal distress and recovery. Implications for research and policy are discussed. Public Library of Science 2023-02-24 /pmc/articles/PMC9956003/ /pubmed/36827339 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282330 Text en © 2023 Kelly et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Kelly, Hannah Kate
Geller, Shulamit
Swami, Viren
Shenkman, Geva
Levy, Sigal
Ridge, Damien
A relational investigation of Israeli gay fathers’ experiences of surrogacy, early parenthood, and mental health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic
title A relational investigation of Israeli gay fathers’ experiences of surrogacy, early parenthood, and mental health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full A relational investigation of Israeli gay fathers’ experiences of surrogacy, early parenthood, and mental health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic
title_fullStr A relational investigation of Israeli gay fathers’ experiences of surrogacy, early parenthood, and mental health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full_unstemmed A relational investigation of Israeli gay fathers’ experiences of surrogacy, early parenthood, and mental health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic
title_short A relational investigation of Israeli gay fathers’ experiences of surrogacy, early parenthood, and mental health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic
title_sort relational investigation of israeli gay fathers’ experiences of surrogacy, early parenthood, and mental health in the context of the covid-19 pandemic
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9956003/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36827339
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282330
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