Fathers Can Be Maternal Too: Men Can Care For Children As Well As Women

For generations we’ve been told that mothers share a special bond with their baby that no-one else, not even the father, can but new research (and one very keen dad) may prove this wrong.

According to a study carried out in the US, men can care for children just as well as women especially when the mother is absent.

The study, entitled “Flexibility of the father’s brain”, scanned the brains of both the mother and father while they watched videos of them interacting with their kids.

In particular, the researchers at Oregon State University monitored activity in two parts of the brain – the emotional network and mental processing.

They found that in the fathers who claimed to be secondary carers to their female partners had less of an emotional response than the child’s mother.

But single dads had similar emotional responses to mothers as well as the critical thinking of fathers – making them both mother and father, brainwave speaking.

The results both prove and contradict stereotypes that mothers are more emotional parents while dads are more practical – turns out men can be just as ‘maternal’ as women.

In a hilarious example/spoof of these new findings, a father-to-be has posed for some of the oddest pregnancy photos we’ve ever seen.

There’s a growing trend, particularly in the US, for pregnant women to take part in professional photo shoots that capture them in a variety of odd poses as a kind of creepy memento of that time they grew a whole human being inside them.

When his wife refused to pose for such pics, this soon-to-be-dad took matters into his own hands and posted the results online.

It’s unclear whether he had already paid for the photographer when his wife backed out or if he just had the idea and ran with it, but either way these photos are genius.

We never thought we’d say this but the world needs more photos of topless portly men eating ice-cream.

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