SMS4Dads and SMS4DeadlyDads is a text-based messaging service targeting dads from 12 weeks into their partners pregnancy. The service takes an early-intervention approach to engaging fathers from the beginning of the pregnancy onward. Both SMS4dads and SMS4DeadlyDads focus on encouraging and increasing fathers’ involvement in parenting and pregnancy, fostering a better understanding of the impact and responsibilities of dads.
The program also monitors the father’s mental health via MoodCheckers and provides them with information and links to support. SMS4dads addresses cultural shifts and changes the norms surrounding traditional views of men’s and women’s roles in childbirth and advocates for increased father participation in all stages of pregnancy and child-rearing. Improved communication, facilitated by the SMS messages, helps fathers navigate the challenges and better support his partner during the perinatal phase. This involvement can lead to reduced conflict and violence within the family.
Another critical element to this approach is the benefits of father involvement and support to the baby. Fathers who interact with their baby have many benefits such as bonding, sense of security for bub and the potential to stimulate language development. and help seeking as a team if there are health concerns.
Early paternal involvement can help change men’s attitudes towards their partners and babies and lead to a reduction in arguing and violence in the home.1
When fathers become more interested in their babies, they are less likely to engage in harmful behaviours such as going out drinking with friends.1 Increased paternal involvement helps fathers develop a better understanding of what it means to be a father, and encourages them to engage as a parent, gain confidence and take on more responsibility.1 2 For instance, fathers develop greater insight and awareness of the challenges of parenting and impacts such as lack of sleep, feeding challenges, stress caused by peaks in baby crying etc.1
Men’s attitudes can change when they invest time with their baby and get involved in everyday tasks such as carrying the baby, going to the football with the baby, or feeding the baby.3 Fathers begin to feel more connected to their babies when they start talking and interacting with them.4 This personal connection strengthens their sense of fatherhood and can motivate them to be more involved.4e
One of the obstacles to early paternal involvement is that men are often excluded from prenatal care and early childcare.5 Fathers may lack confidence in handling their babies, especially when they are very small.5
Aboriginal Leaders Alwin Chong, Uncle Mick Adams and Craig Hammond, suggest that consistent communication and education are key to overcoming these challenges. Targeted programs like SMS4DeadlyDads can help fathers understand what their partners are going through during pregnancy.2 SMS4dads also assists fathers to learn about important milestones, such as the baby’s teeth coming in or changes in the baby’s bowel movements.4 Midwives and medical services also play a role in educating fathers during prenatal checkups. Health workers often say having a service such as SMS4dads and SMS4DeadlyDads to offer that is directly aimed at dads is really helpful.6
Conversations led by SMS4DeadlyDads also highlight the importance of addressing shifting cultural norms surrounding men’s and women’s roles.6
Traditional practices, like excluding men from the birthing process, can limit fathers’ involvement in early childcare.6 However, as these norms continue to evolve, there is a growing recognition that parenting is a shared responsibility and dads’ impact on the health and well-being of their baby and partner right from the get-go.
SMS4DeadlyDads is working on further tailored and place-based information to support dads and provide increasingly targeted and specific information and encouragement of dads to reflect this and prevent family violence.7
1. It changes something in the man too. He’s more interested in his baby now, and his wife or his partner than wanting to go out and get drunk with the guys on a Friday night. They didn’t understand that this is what it is to be a father, being responsible.
Often Dad would just walk away, or Dad, would, sing out at the mum to come and change the nappy on the bub. Those SMS messages are helping that change to happen quicker, even in the pregnancy.
From a domestic violence point of view. There are two things happening when he starts to be interested in his baby. One is the man’s changing his attitude toward mum and bub, but also the baby is growing up in a in a household where there’s less arguing and less violence.
2. It’s about dad understanding what mum’s going through when she gets pregnant.
There are two levels. There is his investing in time with the mum, you know, like he starts doing the shopping, and he starts, you know, helping, cooking and all that stuff. There’s that level, and then there’s the level about him having a much better understanding about what it is to be a father. That’s one of the big ones, because a lot of men, when they get their first bub, they really don’t understand what it is to be a father.
3. We try to get the men we work with to carry the bub around. We’d say, “Oh, you know, take the load off Mum, and go and carry the bub”. But it wasn’t until much, much later when the little bub starts growing up. Then they would start carrying them in those little carry packs. Then all of a sudden, their attitudes change, because, you know, they showed an investment in the bub, all of a sudden they become a father. Carrying bub around or going to the football with bub, or taking bub from mum and going to feed the bub, so bub would be on the bottle, and Mum would be sitting there talking to all her mates, and they just grab the bub and go and feed them. From the moment they seen bub to that point probably would have been about 9, 10 months of them just slowly changing.
4. The other thing is the mental health stuff for Dad. That’s another part of becoming a better father. Something has to happen to try and help Dad stopping beginning violence or getting aggressive when somebody started arguing with him. You need somebody who can work with the man about that kind of behaviour. But the first part is you help them become better fathers and getting those ticks helps quite a lot.
The information is important, about the poo changing colours, you don’t know that until you see it, or when bub starts on solids. There’s a change in that Dad who gets involved with her, sees all those things and then starts understanding what’s going on with little bub. Some guys reckon that what really done it for them was when bub started talking, you know, suddenly bub started saying, dada or mama. All of a sudden there was just a really personal feeling that they made them feel much more like a dad than they’ve ever felt like. It starts back here. This is the period that’s where you start doing the preventive development to domestic violence.
5. Men get kept out of the equation till the birth. They are excluding them for the 9 months until they have a baby, and then when they come home with the baby. Then they wait until they trust the man so it’s maybe about 18 months before they even get to know the baby. And a lot of men are not confident in handling the child because they’re really small, and not wanting to because they might hurt it, but once it grows up and start to talk and look for the dad. Then that becomes where the dad steps in.
6. The messages can tell him what is happening If both mum and dad don’t know what to do, there is going to be arguments. The first time little bub is getting teeth, for instance, it’s daunting. Or if mum was trying to breastfeed but the milk never dropped, and so mum was in pain, and Dad didn’t know what to do. They could learn those things if they went in for the any Antenatal checkups. Because the midwife could tell them. But maybe he didn’t go.
With the messages, there are the cultural differences between what we do on the East Coast and when you go to the Central Desert where the culture is men’s and women’s business. But also things have changed. “I was born on a cattle station apparently mum had me, the baby in the little hut that we were staying in, and these women come up from the swamp area to help. They were the midwives, and apparently dad and my uncles and all the other men were over in the yard when I was born. But it but that never said that was woman business, it was just something that was accepted at that time, you know.
7. It was just our mum’s going to hospital to give birth, and traditionally, like my dad he was never present. He was out in the waiting room. When I became a father. I was at the birth of my 2 sons and then my son was there, holding his partner’s hand at the birth of his 4 daughters. So, I’m trying to get a way of thinking that’s appropriate. I think we should educate the fathers in that time in the pregnancy for them to look after the mum, and once the baby is born.
Men’s business and women’s business, that was, was us back in the 1950s, you know, before we started getting into this stolen generation, women being removed and having babies by themselves. Traditionally they used to go out bush. The women would go away, and the older women would go with them as their midwives and then they would come back with the bub. But most of our women now have babies at hospitals, probably 99% of women now have their babies in hospitals. And so the thing about women’s business and men’s business doesn’t hold anymore, only in certain parts of Australia now. It isn’t men’s business, women’s business anymore. It’s family business.
4dad: Make sure you get some time off for when I arrive Dad. I’m keen to see lots of you!
4dad: It can be hard for us to communicate until I learn to talk. But I am listening, looking and studying your face to work out what’s going on.
4dad: When I go outside I see, smell and feel things. As I grow I see, smell and feel them differently. It’s deadly when you take me outside to connect to Country.
4dad: Coming together as a family is a new beginning. Keep working with mum so we are solid together. Yarn with her, and with the brothas and uncles to talk about how it’s going.
4dad: If you want to go out for a night make sure Mum & I will be alright. Mum could be struggling without support. Here’s some advice from Uncle Mick:
4dad: Mum is probably very uncomfortable right now in this last bit of pregnancy. Try offering her a massage or asking her what else you could do to help.
4dad: How is your stress? Take time to get some exercise or have a yarn to one of the mob.
4dad: Feeling cranky or angry can mean you are feeling worried or sad about something. See your doctor or health worker if you are worried about these feelings.
4dad: Looking after your body also helps keep your mind and spirit strong. Rest when you can, eat well, and try to get some exercise every day. Mental wellbeing 4 men here
Richard’s research revealed possible long-term negative impacts on the children of dads with mental health issues. Fathers’ depressive symptoms in the first year after the birth predicted behaviour problems in their children years later.
“If dads’ mental health has such a dramatic impact then we need to be screening dads for depression, not just mums,” Richard explains.
In response to these limitations, Richard and his team have designed a smart-phone based program that allows mobile connection for new and expectant dads.
Participants receive texts containing information and links, and self-report their mood. If the mood tracker identifies dads as needing extra support, they will be offered a phone call from a counsellor trained in this area.
Following the success of the pilot of the SMS4dads program, Funding was received to enable a National roll-out.
“When dad’s miss antenatal classes or activities, they also miss out on contact and links to other people. They may never get the chance to say to anyone, look I’m really stressed,” he points out.
“SMS4dads is a way of bringing dads into the health system and keeping them linked in with services and support,” explains Richard.
Richard credits a varied career, a talented and innovative team, and much life experience for affording him the insight needed to address the challenges related to actively engaging dads.
After completing his masters in Medical Science, studying epidemiology, Richard earned his PhD focusing on fathers and attachment.
“Fathers are invisible in many places, and that is endemic. Not because people dislike fathers, but because the system is set up to be focused on mothers.”
Some services and organisations are aware of the need to engage dads, but have been unsuccessful in their attempts.
“When people are challenged about this, they generally want dads involved,” Richard affirms.
“Often, however, they just don’t know how to do it.”
Richard works with health professionals on issues related to fathers, and has delivered many antenatal programs for expectant dads.
He credits his own family with giving him an understanding of the role of fathers needed to make his work relevant.
“I have three daughters and two stepdaughters,”
“My kids would say they taught me just about everything I know and they’d be right. They’ve taught me a lot, and still do.”
Richard’s research revealed possible long-term negative impacts on the children of dads with mental health issues. Fathers’ depressive symptoms in the first year after the birth predicted behaviour problems in their children years later.
“If dads’ mental health has such a dramatic impact then we need to be screening dads for depression, not just mums,” Richard explains.
In response to these limitations, Richard and his team have designed a smart-phone based program that allows mobile connection for new and expectant dads.
Participants receive texts containing information and links, and self-report their mood. If the mood tracker identifies dads as needing extra support, they will be offered a phone call from a counsellor trained in this area.
Following the success of the pilot of the SMS4dads program, Funding was received to enable a National roll-out.
“When dad’s miss antenatal classes or activities, they also miss out on contact and links to other people. They may never get the chance to say to anyone, look I’m really stressed,” he points out.
“SMS4dads is a way of bringing dads into the health system and keeping them linked in with services and support,” explains Richard.