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Andile Tshuma
Dear dads, normalise playing an active role in your children’s health.

The past weeks have been busy with child vaccination campaigns as they were declared Child Health Days by the Ministry of Health and Child Care.

Health care centres have been full of activity with parents, mostly mums taking children for vaccination, while schools have also been abuzz as health workers were administering the typhoid conjugate vaccine, which was rolled out countrywide.

In the child vaccination programme, while few men were indeed seen at clinics accompanying mothers and babies, it is worrying that the numbers of men were very few and this is a reflection of the involvement of men in child care and child health in general.

It’s not only a mother’s responsibility, fathers should take an interest and be knowledgeable about child health.

This goes beyond paying for medical aid, driving them to the clinic and waiting in the car. It includes asking questions about weight gain and loss patterns showing on the health card, asking and knowing about allergic reactions to food, what to expect when a baby is teething, changes in stool, why a baby is taking longer to crawl or walk and engaging the baby’s cognitive processes, among other things.

It’s also about taking interest in the baby and mother’s health during pregnancy, and after.

The importance of involving men in reproductive, maternal and child health programs is increasingly recognised globally.

Male involvement in maternal and child health is a practice wherein fathers and male community members actively participate in caring for women and supporting their families to access better health services. There is a positive association between male involvement and better maternal and child health outcomes.

Engaging men as partners in childrearing is critical because of the positive aspects on the child’s development and reduction of childhood illnesses.

Some dads are just not bothered, owing to various factors, chief among them being socialisation and how men have been taught by society to detach themselves from women’s and children’s issues.

This is for the fathers.

Are you called dad? Have you ever seen your child’s health card?

Are you following the progress on those growth charts?

Do you know when their next jab is due, which dose and for which child disease?

Or are you the type that complains all night if a baby is sleepless and cries through the night after going for a jab at the baby clinic? Do you actually know your way around the baby clinic?

Besides the six child killer diseases you memorised in primary school, what else do you know about child health and immunisation?
This is not an attack on any men out there, but conversations have shown that fewer men have an idea or interest in their children’s health.

To the fathers already involved in child health, well done and great job, help your brothers and engage them on the benefits of taking the front seat in your children’s health.

It’s funny that most popular paediatricians or child health specialists I know in Bulawayo are men. The likes of Dr Ndebele, Dr Ikeogu, Dr Olonga, among others.

Male involvement in the context of maternal and child health, refers to men’s active involvement in the care of their partners and children.

Where men are actively involved, research has shown improvements in health outcomes. However, the number of men who demonstrate these behaviours, such as by accompanying their pregnant spouses on antenatal care visits, is generally very low, especially in low-and-middle-income countries. Hence, global health organisations, national governments, and non-governmental organisations are advocating for increased male involvement.

Global recognition of the importance of men in reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) can be traced back to the early 90s.

The United Nations International Conference on Population and Development, World Conference for women, and the 48th UN Commission on the Status of Women were responsible for bringing the male involvement agenda into focus. Consequently, there has been increasing support from the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), national governments, and many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) towards promoting male involvement.

Maternal and child health programmes and professionals have become increasingly more cognisant of how fathers, specifically, affect their children’s health and development.

Evidence demonstrates that fathers play a critical role in children’s health and development, beginning in the prenatal period and continuing through early childhood and adolescence.

According to the Institute for Children’s Health Quality, when fathers are involved during pregnancy, mothers are 1,5 times more likely to receive prenatal care in the first trimester, which has positive implications for both maternal and infant health. During infancy, fathers can support mothers in breastfeeding and in following safe sleep guidelines, both of which can reduce infant deaths.

Fathers also play an important role in supporting children during early childhood, in terms of executive function and social-emotional development. And during adolescence, father involvement translates to better outcomes in school and a reduced risk of teen pregnancies.

Yet, despite this evidence, some fathers still face significant barriers to involvement, including systemic obstacles related to employment, and a lack of confidence stemming from social stereotypes about the expected role of a father—namely that their role is somehow secondary to the mother’s.

During health centre or doctor visits, paediatric health professionals can engage fathers in conversations about safe sleep, breastfeeding, father-child bonding, and early childhood development. Describing how fathers, specifically, can support children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development is essential in encouraging them to step up and be present and involved dads.

At the State and policy level, health professionals and advocates can work to support paid family leave for fathers, so that mothers and fathers are guaranteed time with their new-born during those critical early months. Giving fathers dedicated time with their children immediately after birth provides the foundation for a healthy father-child relationship and ultimately improves outcomes for children.

In Zimbabwe, efforts have been made to ensure that fathers are involved in child health through health promotion and advertising material that is gender-sensitive and portrays fathers as involved in children’s health.

Communities must also work together to fight stereotypes that detach men from active involvement in family health issues. — @andile_tshuma.