Abstract
Aim. The aim was to investigate the attitudes of men who plan to become fathers or not, and who either attend antenatal classes with their wife/partner or do not.
Material and methods. The study included three groups of 200 men: I – those who did not plan to become a father within the next year, II – those who were going to become fathers within the next year but did not attend antenatal classes, III – those who were gping to become fathers within the next year and attended antenatal classes. The original questionnaires were used.
Results. Pregnancy should be planned according to 81.8% of respondents. When it comes to 87.2% of men, they reported that man should support pregnant wife/partner, while 65.5% believed that joint visits to the doctor were pointless. Respondents most often preferred interactions between mother and father with the future child in her womb, such as stroking the belly (43% vs. 29.8%) and talking to the baby (31% vs. 19.8%).
Conclusions. Most men reported pregnancy should be planned. Men had problems with declaring whether the father should be on paternity leave after the birth, and there was no infl uence of the duration of the marriage, the fact of having children, the age of the respondents and education, and the place of residence had infl uence on the above.
Key words: pregnancy, attitudes, men