Baby's Colic Linked to Fathers Prenatal Depression

Colicky infants who cry excessively may be more common in children of depressed men, Dutch researchers said Monday. Go to full article here.

Depression before child's birth

Recognizing paternal depression next to maternal depression before childbirth could be beneficial for identifying fathers who need help for themselves and their children.

It's unlikely the baby's crying caused men to be depressed since they were screened for the condition before the child was born, they noted.

The researchers speculated that the link between a father's depression and their baby's colic could be related to:

• Genetics (though false paternity could not be ruled out in the study.)
• Poor interaction between depressed fathers and their infants.
• Indirect stress from marital, family or economic pressures.

This is great new breakthrough on two levels -- looking at the PRENATAL period when baby is built and looking at the impact of the father's emotional and mental state on that period. HOWEVER, as with most research, there is NO observation, inclusion, or mention of the EXPERIENCE of labor, birth, and first hours of life outside the womb.

Most research done regarding birth -- especially about the baby, but also the mother, and definitely the father, leaves out THE BIRTH! It is a huge, huge, I think GLARING omission in most research designed to tell us very important information about babies and parents. How can it when it doesn't include the baby, mother's, and father's experiences of birth?

Think about it. Be aware and notice this. From now see I bet you will also notice that our language when speaking, reading, and researching about the baby, the mother, father, and family and baby development almost always uses the phrase "before and after birth?" The baby and parents for generations have left the hospital expected to suck up whatever happened and "be happy that the baby is alive." I believe it is a monumental break in our fundamental relationships. Women and men, mothers and fathers, go home to live their lives with these huge unnamed, unrecognized, unintegrated individual and family violations and woundings.

How could science leave out the EXPERIENCE of birth for the baby, the mother, and the father as a factor in any research? How could the impact of birth on us as a baby not be recognized and how could our mother's experience of birthing us and our father's experience of being there and seeing us come into the world not be the subject of research? When it is allowed to become the subject of joy and power, maybe .....