Pregnancy: A Shared Experience?

You may have heard of it as sympathetic pregnancy―the phenomenon in which a man begins to exhibit the same symptoms as his pregnant partner: weight gain, nausea, unusual food cravings, backaches, etc. This condition is also known as couvade syndrome, from the French word couver, which means “to brood.” It may sound like an odd phenomenon, but it’s not that uncommon for fathers-to-be to undergo these changes during their partners’ pregnancies. Many explanations have been advanced over the years to account for sympathetic pregnancies. Some have suggested that it’s a psychiatric disorder spurred by the father’s envy of his partner’s ability to have a child. Others say symptoms mirroring those of pregnancy are psychosomatic responses to changing emotions. However, research shows that it does have a biological component, with fathers experiencing hormonal changes that parallel those of the mother. These changes affect his body and may also prepare him emotionally and temperamentally for fatherhood. Read more…