(Accompanying labor. Experiences of young male parents in public hospitals of a popular neighborhood of La Plata)

Abstract

The process of labor and birth constitutes a relevant event for the analysis of fatherhood (s) experiences that have been scarcely addressed in the youth population. The specialized bibliography highlights the importance of the participation of men at that time to strengthen the bond with their children and their partners, as well as generate rethinking about their own fatherhood and masculinity. There is evidence of the benefits of early contact of both parents with their newborn children reported in various studies, substantially improving the later social, psychological, and behavioral aspects of the children. Within the framework of doctoral research that addressed the study of youth parenthood in popular neighborhoods, this article presents some findings and reflections on the experiences of young parents in the process of labor and birth of their children in two public maternity hospitals. The interviews were conducted with forty young male parents living in a popular neighbourhood of La Plata (province of Buenos Aires) during the period 2013-2015 based on an intentional sample selected by a snowball, based on the criteria of accessibility and heterogeneity. As evidenced throughout the work, the different forms of participation of young people will not depend exclusively on the decision of their partners and/or their own wishes, but also on the various criteria of the intervening medical team and the spaces enabled by the different health institutions that tend to discourage it, directly or indirectly. In this way, there is a range of different experiences that include young people as full participants, secondary participants and even completely absent in these processes, in most of the cases analysed.