New-father support: A missed opportunity in preventing intimate partner violence

With all the talk in Australia this year of how best to prevent intimate partner violence (IPV), there’s still no definitive answer to this important question. We argue that supporting fathers during pregnancy and early parenthood could be a key to reducing family violence rates.

Despite intimate partner violence (IPV) being the greatest health risk factor for women aged 25-44 in Australia, current health services largely exclude fathers from perinatal care – a critical period when women face heightened domestic violence risks. Domestic violence costs Australia an estimated $26 billion annually.

Our new systematic review found only 15 interventions targeting fathers to prevent or reduce IPV nternationally, highlighting a significant gap in the evidence. This research comes as Australia implements its National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032 .

Of those 15 IPV interventions we found, most were poor-to-moderate quality, few were based on established theories of change, and only one included input from men on what might work to prevent or reduce IPV.

Therefore, we’re losing an important opportunity to prevent/reduce IPV at this crucial life stage.

Fathers feel unsupported

Another review I led found that fathers feel unsupported by health services during pregnancy and early parenthood, and unprepared for the changes that occur during their lives as they become parents.

The transition to fatherhood represents a unique opportunity for prevention, and is also the only life transition where men are routinely engaged with health services and are actively reflecting on their roles and relationships.

Even the name of our universal services in Victoria – Maternal and Child Health – suggests fathers are unwelcome and unimportant in family systems. There are no Medicare provisions for supporting fathers during this crucial transition, and no clear referral pathways when they need help.

Read more: Eliminating gender-based violence

The recent federal government expert panel review on domestic violence prevention acknowledges the transition to fatherhood as a key intervention point. But concrete recommendations for father-specific support are lacking.

We know that most men want what's best for their infants, and may be open to changing behaviors as they become fathers. By supporting fathers better, helping them prepare for relationship changes, and providing strategies to manage fatigue and mental health, we could potentially reduce domestic violence rates during this critical period.

When couples become parents, they reflect on traditional gender roles – what “mothers” should do, versus what “fathers” should do.

Sometimes parents want to move away from the role models that their own parents showed them, but they may need help rethinking these gender roles and agreeing on what kind of parents they want to be.

Interventions that work

Our review found that successful IPV interventions in pregnancy and after the birth of a child often include working with couples to address these gender roles and unconscious stereotypes that many of us carry from our childhood.

Our recommendations amount to practical solutions:

• Create specific Medicare item numbers for father support

• Rename and restructure perinatal services to explicitly include fathers

• Develop evidence-based interventions to prevent IPV targeting new fathers

• Implement “healthy masculinities” models specific to fatherhood.

Urgent need for reform

With mounting evidence showing the importance of early intervention, our review highlights an urgent need to reform how we support fathers during the perinatal period. This work aligns with broader national discussions on healthcare reform, and the increasing focus on preventative approaches to domestic violence.

As we write in our newest review paper, we absolutely recognise the importance of services and support for women and children living with violence. But we expected to find more studies reporting on interventions specifically targeting or including fathers in the family’s transition to parenthood.

It’s difficult to understand how real reductions in rates of IPV can be achieved without working with men to effect behaviour change, although program effectiveness is, of course, ultimately dependent on the commitment of participants to changing their violent behaviours.

The birth of a child is meant to be a joyous time, but for too many Australian families, it marks the beginning or escalation of domestic violence. While our health system focuses intensively on mothers and babies during pregnancy and early parenthood, fathers are largely left out of the picture – and this could be a costly oversight in our efforts to prevent family violence.