Service-level language and communication
Consider how gendered language is used across your health service. Mother-focussed terminology can give the impression that fathers and non-birthing parents do not belong and that the space is primarily reserved for mothers Take a fresh look at your physical environment, publications, and marketing materials. Do they reinforce gender stereotypes about families and/or parenting roles? Have you completed an image audit to identify opportunities for improvement? Do you understand what the experience is like for fathers and non-birthing parents at your service? Have you asked?
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Positive impacts on families will be amplified if health services take a whole-of-service approach to inclusive practice and use language across all communication formats that reflects fathers and non-birthing parents as valuable, competent, equal parents.
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Engage your colleagues to work through this service checklist:
Reflect on your service culture and the expectations of staff. Are all staff on-board with “family-centred practice” that includes and supports all family members? Is it discussed within teams? Do your policies and procedures support the active inclusion and valuing of all parents? Do you provide inclusive messages at all points of access for parents? For example, during appointments, when undertaking tests, when taking bookings, in education sessions, during postnatal stays, in written correspondence, etc. Does your service routinely share information relating to fertility, preconception health, conception, pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and parenting with all parents? Do you provide resources for each parent? There are an increasing number of resources available for fathers and non-birthing parents How do you get information to parents who can’t attend appointments? Do you ask the attending parents to pass written information on? Are both parents on your email lists?
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F athers ‘ welcome ’ is not enough Many health organisations say that fathers, non- birthing parents and other partners are ‘ welcome’ to attend and participate in their services. B ut what does this actually mean? That fathers can sit in if they’d like, or that fathers are invited by name and encouraged to attend? O r something else? U npacking the ‘ welcome’ concept is an important step in increasing and improving the engagement of fathers and non-birthing parents. Although ‘ welcome’ is a positive term which evokes warmth and inclusiveness, we would argue that it does not necessarily initiate the engagement of fathers and non-birthing parents in a sector that was not created for them, and has in many ways excluded them. S ome might also argue that the term ‘ welcome’ provides an excuse for services ( e.g. “ W e said they were welcome but they chose not to attend. W e did our j ob.” ) .
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Plus Paternal : Talking to Dads
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