Expectant parents' anticipated changes in workload after the birth of their first child

OBJECTIVE We hoped to evaluate gender differences in prenatal workload and anticipated prenatal to postpartum changes in workload for a group of expec tant parents. METHODS We included a total of 149 couples who were living together, expect ing their first child, and enrolled in prenatal classes presented by 2 metr opolitan hospitals. The couples completed a prenatal sun ey containing info rmation about demographic characteristics and prenatal work responsibilitie s and a worksheet listing the number of hours per week that each partner pl anned to devote to various household, child care, and employment responsibi lities at 6 months postpartum. RESULTS Though both men and women anticipated large increases in workload f rom the prenatal to the postpartum period, a omen expected greater increase s (85% vs 53%). As a result of their greater anticipated involvement in hou sehold work and child care, women planned to work 9 hours more per week tha n men after the arrival of the baby. These expectant parents tended to occu py somewhat traditional gender work roles, with women contributing more tim e to cooking, cleaning, laundry, and shopping, and men devoting more time t o lawn care, snow removal, household repairs, and employment. Men appeared to be more satisfied than women with their partner's contribution to househ old work (mean=6.0 and 5.4; P=.000). Partners' perceptions of how they shar ed household work were congruent, with 90% of the couples summed congruency scores in the range within 1 point of a perfect match. CONCLUSIONS Expectant parents in this study anticipated large increases in workload after childbirth. The projected work increases were greater for wo men than for men. It is interesting to note that these gander differences a re anticipated even when couples were given an opportunity to systematicall y plan their postpartum work distribution together.