For husbands after the birth

After a birth, attention naturally centers on the mother and the baby. That is right. Yet the husband's role in these months is not secondary. How he serves, how he waits and how he cares for himself shapes the health of the whole family. This lesson is written for husbands, and wives may find it useful to read it with them.

Fatherhood as a vocation

Saint John Paul II taught that a man is called to ensure the harmonious development of all the members of his family, and that in his fatherhood he reveals and relives on earth the very fatherhood of God (Familiaris Consortio 25). That is a high calling, and it is lived mostly in ordinary things: a diaper changed at three in the morning, a meal prepared, a visitor politely turned away when his wife needs sleep. Saint Paul asks husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her (Ephesians 5:25). In the fourth trimester, giving yourself up often looks like giving up sleep, hobbies and plans for a while, without keeping score.