Taking care of yourself as a dad or partner
Roughly one in ten dads experience postpartum depression. You are allowed to struggle, and you are allowed to get help.
Dads and partners are often told to be the rock. But they experience postpartum depression and anxiety too, especially when the birthing parent is struggling, when sleep is scarce, or when money and work stress pile up. It often looks different: irritability, anger, working more, withdrawing, drinking more, feeling numb.
Signals worth noticing in yourself
- Short fuse, snapping at people you love.
- Feeling trapped, useless, or like you are failing at everything.
- Avoiding home, or avoiding the baby.
- Physical stuff: headaches, stomach issues, not sleeping even when you can.
What to do
- Tell one person the truth about how you are doing. A friend, your own doctor, another dad in the Postpartum+ dads & partners community.
- Protect one small thing that is yours each week: a run, a game, a coffee alone.
- Postpartum Support International runs free online groups just for dads and partners.
- A therapist for you is not taking resources away from her. It usually makes you a better support.
Drawn from public guidance including Postpartum Support International: Help for Dads. Educational only; not medical advice.
Find care near you
Search real directories for perinatal therapists, psychiatry, lactation, pelvic floor and more.
Talk to people who get it
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Keep reading
Postpartum depression in dads and partners
About one in ten new dads experience depression after a baby arrives. It often looks like anger, withdrawal or working all the time rather than sadness. How to spot it, and what helps.
Read the guideNighttime support that actually works
Sleep is medicine in postpartum. How to build a night plan that protects her rest even if she is breastfeeding.
Read the guideCommunicating when everyone is running on empty
Arguments at 2 a.m. are rarely about the thing you are arguing about. Tools for staying on the same team.
Read the guideLived this, or work with families who have? Write a guide with us.


