The participatory experiences of men in the care for pregnant women

• Main Authors: Tatiana Laguado-Barrera, Maria Mercedes Lafaurie-Villamil, Lina Maria Vargas-Escobar
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Universidad del Magdalena 2019-01-01
• Series: Duazary
• Online Access: http://revistas.unimagdalena.edu.co/index.php/duazary/article/view/2532

A phenomenological qualitative study was carried out in nine men, between 19 and 36 years old, in a maternal program in Cucuta, to understand their experiences of participation in caring their pregnant partner. In the narratives, constructions around pregnancy emerge, as well as its acceptance, emotionality and associated changes, meanings attributed to fatherhood and care framed by the duty to be masculine. Caring for their partners generates satisfaction because it fulfills the expected social role. Meanings of caring their partners, associated to "responsibility" and "sense of duty", sustained in the role of providers and protectors to their gestating couple and in the son to come, emerge. Men experience various changes: they suspend proposed projects, they are more tender and linked to their partners, they reduce their social spaces and perceive transformations in the pregnant woman and in the affective and sexual relationship. Their principal barrier is their work, due to schedules, working conditions and self-demand. It is necessary to involve men in reproductive health care spaces to know their experiences, to give them information, so that, together with pregnant women, they can be stronger to live the pregnancy.