BENGALURU, India, Aug. 15 : On this 75th Independence Day, Hospitals in Whitefield- Manipal Hospitals Whitefield and Columbia Asia Hospitals Whitefield (A unit of Manipal Hospitals) celebrates Gender Equality in parenthood.
The hospital today, invited would-be parents to hoist the flag and to be an idol for the budding young couples.
Fathers have a profound and lasting impact on a healthy pregnancy and their children’s development.
There is no doubt that parents play an important role in the growth and wellbeing of their children. However, for time immemorial, it’s often the mother who dominates in nurturing the child, rather than the father.
As they say, ‘it takes a village to raise a child’, parenting is teamwork. A positive engagement and support of a father during pregnancy and after birth is equally important in protecting and promoting a healthy and happy family.
Effective parenting happens when both the mother and father equally participate in the child’s upbringing.
A husband becomes a father long before the baby arrives into the world. Several studies have recognized the importance of a father’s involvement in a healthy pregnancy and its positive outcome. When a father actively participates during pregnancy, the health of the mother is said to improve and the optimum foetal (unborn baby) growth is achieved. Although pregnancy is all about the expecting mother, the father needs to be a part of it too. Little things like taking some time off from the work and spending time with the partner, taking her to doctors’ appointments, sharing the household responsibilities so that the mother-to-be can get some rest, cooking healthy meals, being there for the labour and delivery, etc. After the child is born, the father can help in putting the baby to sleep, changing nappies, bathing, feeding, etc. During the growing years, when fathers are actively involved in their children’s lives, their children turn out to be better individuals with improved social and academic development. Fathers have a huge and lasting impact on their children’s behaviour, who model themselves after their father.
Society has imposed several restrictions on men from being caring fathers and has limited their role to a protector and breadwinner for the family. The role of a father in a child’s life should be recognized by society as a core parenting role along with the mother and other family members. The men also come forward and share joint responsibilities along with their partner during pregnancy, child-birth, in child-rearing, supporting their partner’s decisions, prevent domestic violence, resolve issues peacefully and constructively, and be respectful towards everybody. Furthermore, men can also contribute to their partner’s emotional and physical well-being, set the balance in household decision-making that contributes to a fair, impartial, and peaceful society.
Following the event today, Mr.Deepak Venugopal, Regional Chief Operating Officer, Bengaluru and Tamil Nadu cluster, Manipal Hospitals said, “Engaging fathers’ in active parenting during pregnancy, child-birth, and growing years through responsive care and stimulation has demonstrated improvement in the child’s physical and mental wellbeing, better early learning, cognition, and socio-emotional development. There is a dearth for programs and policies that promote gender equality, and fathers’ positive engagement during pregnancy and in the child’s growing years, so that a healthy and positive relationship between the mother, father and their children is created.”
Both father and mother are the primary teachers to their children. Children grow up by learning and observing their patient’s behaviour. Much like mothers, fathers should get involved in their children’s lives, especially during pregnancy and their early growing years. Men should be encouraged to take off time from their busy schedules and be more actively involved in child-rearing and other domestic responsibilities.
About Manipal Hospitals:
As a pioneer in healthcare, Manipal Hospitals is India’s second largest multi-specialty healthcare providers treating over 4 million patients annually. With its recent acquisition of 100% stake in Columbia Asia Hospitals in India, the integrated organisation today has an enhanced pan-India footprint with 26 hospitals across 14 cities with 7,000+ beds with a talented pool of 4,000+ doctors and 10,000+ employees. Its focus is to develop an affordable, high quality healthcare framework through its multispecialty and tertiary care delivery spectrum and further extend it to out of hospital care. Manipal Hospitals provides comprehensive curative and preventive care for a multitude of patients from around the globe
