When Do Professionals Envision and Trust Fathers as Caregivers over the Course of Giving Birth? A Comparison of Pre- and Postnatal Healthcare Professionals’ Assessments of Fathers in the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland

When fathers are involved in caregiving from the beginning of their child’s life, they are more likely to stay involved, resulting in more gender equality between spouses and in positive cognitive and psychosocial health outcomes for children. It has been shown, however, that professional experts often focus predominantly on and build trust relationships with mothers rather than fathers. In this paper, drawing on interviews with and observations of pre- and postnatal healthcare professionals in the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland, I examine in which institutional contexts these professionals did activate and build trust relationships with fathers, while envisioning them as caregivers.