OBJECTIVE: We hoped to evaluate gender differences in prenatal workload and anticipated prenatal to postpartum changes in workload for a group of expectant parents.
METHODS: We included a total of 149 couples who were living together, expecting their first child, and enrolled in prenatal classes presented by 2 metropolitan hospitals. The couples completed a prenatal survey containing information about demographic characteristics and prenatal work responsibilities and a worksheet listing the number of hours per week that each partner planned to devote to various household, child care, and employment responsibilities at 6 months postpartum.
RESULTS: Though both men and women anticipated large increases in workload from the prenatal to the postpartum period, women expected greater increases (85% vs 53%). As a result of their greater anticipated involvement in household work and child care, women planned to work 9 hours more per week than men after the arrival of the baby. These expectant parents tended to occupy somewhat traditional gender work roles, with women contributing more time to cooking, cleaning, laundry, and shopping, and men devoting more time to lawn care, snow removal, household repairs, and employment. Men appeared to be more satisfied than women with their partner’s contribution to household work (mean=6.0 and 5.4; P=.000). Partners’ perceptions of how they shared household work were congruent, with 90% of the couples’ summed congruency scores in the range within 1 point of a perfect match.
CONCLUSIONS: Expectant parents in this study anticipated large increases in workload after childbirth. The projected work increases were greater for women than for men. It is interesting to note that these gender differences are anticipated even when couples were given an opportunity to systematically plan their postpartum work distribution together.
The birth of a first child is a time of major transition for a couple, marked by significant changes in the roles and responsibilities of both parents. The nature of their responsibilities change, and the volume of their work increases markedly. Comparative data from a national longitudinal study indicate that adults of childbearing age (25-44 years) invest more combined total work hours into the home and workplace than other adults, with workloads of 82 to 84 hours per week for employed women and 70 to 71 hours per week for employed men compared with less than 67 and 61 hours per week for older women and men, respectively.1 The way partners respond to these workload issues can have an impact on marital happiness, as shown by several studies demonstrating an association between wives’ marital satisfaction and their husbands’ participation in household work.2-7 The sharing of work responsibility is particularly important in the first few months after childbirth, with research demonstrating a significant association between the mother’s mental health and the degree of her partner’s emotional and practical support.8 However, many new mothers perceive a decline in their husbands’ participation in household chores and expressions of caring over the first postpartum year.9
Is this move to a more traditional division of labor intentional? Would it persist if couples were given the opportunity to learn about and plan for their postpartum responsibilities? Would a more equitable division of family and household work enhance the mental and physical health of women and men and increase their marital happiness in these early childbearing years? These questions form the basis of this research in postpartum health and family systems and are particularly relevant to family physicians who work within a broad definition of health that considers the context of community and family. Though it is common for family physicians to refer expectant parents to prenatal classes on childbirth and infant care, couples typically have few or no opportunities to formally prepare themselves for their postpartum lifestyle changes, including their new and increasing work responsibilities. Parenting classes address the needs of the child and the parent-child relationship10 while couples’ groups look at partners’ communication and conflict management,11 but few structured opportunities exist for couples to plan for family and household work needs after their child is born.
There were 3 goals for this study: (1) describe the work patterns of a group of employed couples living together and expecting their first child; (2) provide a formal opportunity for couples to establish a plan for sharing postpartum work; and (3) evaluate gender differences in anticipated changes in workload from before to after childbirth. Of special interest was learning how couples intended to share postpartum work responsibilities (eg, equally vs unequally) when given a formal opportunity to actively plan for postpartum work distribution. This descriptive study represents the initial phase of a randomized controlled trial testing the impact of a prenatal work planning session (conducted in the context of childbirth education classes) on the partners’ postpartum work distribution, selected mental and physical health outcomes, and marital satisfaction.