Dad brains: How fatherhood rewires the male mind

From before their babies are born, men undergo serious hormonal changes that can powerfully influence their behaviour – with consequences for their child's wellbeing. In the months before my son was born, my partner and I attended an active birth workshop, a breastfeeding session and the hospital-run antenatal course, read a small pile of pregnancy and baby books and scrolled through loads of websites. Our notepads quickly filled up. Among my notes of that time are details of the many ways women's bodies prepare for birth and motherhood: hormones rise and drop, organs move, brains reshape. No one, however, told me that my brain and body were also readying for fatherhood. My son was over a year old when I first came across that idea in Father Time, a book by primatologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy in which she argues that men have all the necessary biological wiring to be "every bit as protective and nurturing as the most committed mother". This piqued my curiosity. I am a resolute believer in active fathering, but I had imagined this was a cultural decision by my generation of men. Hrdy's book, however, introduced me to an entire academic field saying that our approach is rooted in biolog

Apr 18, 2026 → Apr 18, 2026