Routine screening for mental health disorders
should be performed. Estimates
of lifetime risk of major depression for
men range from 1.4% in the Epidemiologic
Catchman Area to 11% in the National
Comorbidity Study. Recent evidence
suggests that depression of the
father during the postnatal development
of their child was found to be significantly
associated with poor childhood
emotional and behavioral outcomes,
even after adjusting for maternal depression
and paternal depression during a
different developmental stage of the
child26; such long-term detriments can
be averted with identification and referral
of at-risk fathers-to-be for mental
health services. Furthermore, depressed
fathers can have a negative impact on the
mother-child interaction behaviors, and
are less likely to engage in certain fatherchild
interactions, such as playing outdoors
with their children.27 On the other
hand, fathers with good mental health
have been shown to reduce the impact of
a mother’s depression on the child.28