Dads bond more easily with babies if they know the sex and name before birth

Dads who find out the sex of their baby before birth will find it easier to bond with their new child.

Those who also decide the name of the baby were found to have even more of an advantage when it comes to connecting with their newborn.

According to a new report, finding out more information about their unborn baby empowers fathers-to-be to feel more part of the pregnancy, speeding up their feelings of bonding when the baby arrives.

The research at the University of Birmingham found that men who knew the sex and name of their baby before he or she was born were more able to visualise it as a person that they could build a relationship with.

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It's not surprising that men who get more involved during the pregnancy feel more part of their new baby's life, but it does throw up the question about whether it's better to find out the sex early rather than leaving it to be a surprise, as some mums-to-be might prefer.

The report suggested: "Encouraging fathers to become actively involved, and drawing them in, may require more than making them feel welcome and creating space for them to talk, but also giving them explicit permission to become actively involved.

"The researchers found that attending scans helped to make their partner’s pregnancy more real for men but ‘it was discovering the gender of their child, and giving him, or her, a name that tended to enable men to feel emotionally connected'."

[Related: Dads' post-natal depression affects baby]

Dad-of-one Mark McCafferty agrees: "My initial feeling on discovering I was to be a father was sheer disbelief - even after visual proof at our first scan.

"I was struggling to come to terms with becoming a father, let alone forming any kind of bond with the grey, speckly alien that I had seen floating around on a TV screen.

"It wasn't until the second scan, after electing to find out the sex of this speckled alien that reality hit home. It became a he, then he became Dylan - a little boy that I began to visualise kicking a football around and climbing trees.

"I found that knowing the sex and therefore being able to name our baby made the whole thing seem more real - which in turn enabled me to begin the realisation process of becoming a father, which, for me was the foundation for bonding with my unborn child."

Did you find out the sex of your baby? Did it help with bonding? Tell us on Twitter.