The homecoming of a new born into a family home is one of the most major events people will face in their lives. A new born bring excitement, laughter, joy but also worries as the stresses of becoming a parent are daunting to say the least for any parent.

Becoming a father for the first time is intimidating to many men, as men become fathers their self-image, relation with their partner or wife changes dramatically. A father is a very important person in a child's life, starting before the child is born. Many fathers 'play' with their babies before birth by talking and singing to them or by gently massaging the mother's abdomen. The baby will recognise a father's voice at birth if he's been this close.

Babies with involved fathers show all sorts of positive benefits. Both boys and girls have an easier time being born, maintain a better self-image as they grow and do better in school if dad stays involved. In this documentary, fathers share how they see themselves in the changing world of the twentieth century and modern Ireland.

Men speak about the challenges of gaining access to maternity hospital's while unmarried and the importance of having a son for the family farm. These men share their own relationships about their own fathers and how that has affected their new role of becoming dad. How to share emotion to the new born and trying to recall if their own father shared emotion to them? One man recalls that his father never played with him as a child which created a loss of emotion between them that always lingered.

First broadcast RTÉ Radio 1, 24 February 1986

Produced and Presented by Julie Parsons

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