It’s only natural that when a father is expecting a baby, he reads books and materials written for fathers. This should be the ideal, even if the pregnancy is “suffered” by the significant other, who may not necessarily be a wife. On the other hand, reading a book or material written for expectant mothers is perfect because the dad gets to know not only about the baby on board, but also about what the mother is going through.
How I wished that during the process of waiting for by firstborn to come out, I have a manual — pretty much like the case of the other important things in a man’s life, the remote control or the car — that gives specific instructions on how to deal with babies while they’re still inside the womb (and, yes, dealing with would-be moms when they’re asking for hard-to-find foods during unholy hours, only to tell you, after you’ve gone through hell and back, that they’ve lost their appetite). That manual should come with a table of contents, a glossary and a 24-hour toll-free helpdesk.
Of course there are already existing foreign-based sites dealing with fatherhood: Babyzone, the National Fatherhood Initiative, Fatherhood Foundation, Promoting Responsible Fatherhood and Fatherhood at About.com.
Let’s do our little share, by having this space where Pinoy fathers get to tell their stories and experiences while waiting for their babies to see, er, meet the world for the first time, for the benefit of a would-be father, papa, tatay or some other way of calling a father. Let’s have that in this category — Baby on Board. If you haven’t heard, dads and future dads are most welcome to write a post in this blog, which is, in the first place, primarily for dads.
