Becoming an involved father of an infant

DATA OBJECTIVE: To describe the experience of fatherhood in the early months after the birth of an infant through a metasynthesis of relevant qualitative studies.

Cinahl, PsychInfo, MEDLINE, and Social Work Abstracts electronic databases from 1990 through 2001 were searched using the terms qualitative, fathers, fatherhood, infants, father-infant relationship, and postpartum.

Ten published articles, representing seven qualitative studies, focusing on the experiences of fathers of healthy infants were reviewed. Only studies published from 1990 through 2001 were selected to reflect more recent representations of fatherhood.

Using Noblit and Hare's metasynthesis approach, each study was carefully read, and key metaphors from each study were compared and translated by applying each of the metaphors to all the other studies. The study translations were synthesized into a whole, and the synthesis refined, leading to a description of the experience of being the father of an infant.

The metasynthesis revealed that fathers of infants experienced four phases, represented by the following characteristics: (a) entering with expectations and intentions, (b) confronting reality, (c) creating one's role of involved father, and (d) reaping rewards. Contextual factors that influenced the father-infant relationship were identified. Implications for theory development, research, and clinical practice are discussed.