Fathers and Hospital Childbirth in New Zealand

From the 1950s the Parents' Centre, a new consumer group in New Zealand, included amongst its goals the right for men to accompany their wives into maternity hospitals at childbirth. This campaign was eventually successful; fathers' presence at childbirth became the norm and hospital spaces changed significantly to accommodate these new demands. This article explores the reasons for that social change, including ideas in the 1950s about the psychological benefits to the family of men's attendance, and the influence of the women's and consumer movements of the 1970s. It then examines attitudes to the changes among health professionals as well as men and women themselves, and explores whether, once men's attendance had become the norm, the reality met expectations.