Nice but not essential: Discourses on Dutch fathers' involvement in maternity care and parenting during the COVID-19 pandemic
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20377/jfr-1220Keywords:
maternity care, COVID-19 pandemic, partner involvement, fatherhood, parenting, discourses, gender ideology, uncertainty, riskAbstract
Objective: This study explores connections between (expectant) parents' narratives about fathers’ involvement in maternity care during the pandemic, and societal discourses regarding gendered roles and responsibilities in perinatal care and parenting.
Background: Paternal involvement preceding, during, and following pregnancy and birth is increasingly underscored as important. However, when COVID-19 emerged, limiting fathers’ access to maternity care was among the first measures introduced.
Method: We conducted 25 online, semi-structured interviews with 29 parents who received maternity care between March 13 and June 1, 2020, known as the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands. We combined a reflexive thematic analysis process of open and axial coding with a critical discourse analysis.
Results: Measures limiting fathers’ involvement in maternity care were experienced as unpleasant but generally accepted and followed. We found that participants’ perceptions of pandemic uncertainty and risk: a) legitimized the overruling of relationality; b) reinforced inequality in parenting and paid work arrangements; c) accentuated cultural understandings of gender-based parental asymmetry. Both progressive and traditional discourses coexisted among and within participants’ accounts, yet more traditional role divisions were relatively often prioritized in parents’ and care professionals’ considerations and negotiations.
Conclusion: Responses to early-stage pandemic uncertainty and risk tended to legitimize and reinforce gendered asymmetries in perinatal care and parenting, corroborating research showing that the pandemic magnified preexisting inequalities and systemic weaknesses.
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