As is so often the case Daddy Types is on the scene well before I am ... this time in reference to an article in the Australian press about how new dads are poorly served by the usual mom-centered pre-natal education (usually the whole Lamaze thing). It seems that fathers could use a little information about exactly what the heck everything will be like for them.

Now the nay-sayers (see comments to Greg's original post for an example) will say that dads really don't want to sit through a class version of "What to Expect When You're Expecting -- The Mars Variation." They'd really rather not sit through any classes at all. And while that's true for a lot of guys, there's a group -- a growing group -- that would really like all the knowledge they can get.

This was the genius of Hogan Hilling's recently resurrected Proud Dads groups: a hospital-based support group for guys. The problem that Hogan faced, I think, was that his sessions were aimed at guy who had long since left the maternity ward, when corralling them is much harder. Designing a dad-only companion to Lamaze requires walking a fine line: you don't want to insult the intelligence (or the experience) of the men who might be there, but you don't want to skip anything important, either. I know there are other programs out there operating in a limited fashion to help prospective and new fathers, but I know very little about them. Can anyone (Hogan?) who can lend a hand in explaining why there are so few opportunities for this sort of thing and how the tide might be turned?