Thinking for Three: Mothers’ and Fathers’ Narratives on Transition to Parenthood.

Background:The birth of the first child represents a challenging event in the new-parents' life. Although literature highlighted that this period is experienced in adifferent way by the new mothers and new fathers, little is known about the broader evolutionary challenge that the transition to parenthood entails,also due to the difficulty of starting to think for three.Objective:The present study aims to explore the new-parents' autobiographical narratives after childbirth, to examine the meaning they construct of thisevent, and investigate the differences between the experience of new mothers and new fathers.Methods:Thirteen couples were recruited for the study. After childbirth, an individual open interview was conducted in order to collect information of thepersonal experience of becoming a parent. All interviews, audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim, were analyzed by T-Lab software in order toexplore similarities and differences between them, using thematic analysis to perform unsupervised clustering of narrations to highlight theemerging themes, and we evaluated the elementary contexts of the narratives. A subsequent in-depth analysis regarding the process of delivery wasconducted through the LIWCResults:Similar but not overlapping themes emerged from narratives. Overall, parents have to face three crucial issues: giving a meaning to the childbirthexperience, reorganizing family life, and managing the newborn. However, new-mothers and new-fathers live this period not only with differentroles, but also referring to different contexts and seem to house two different spaces: one mental and one physical. Fathers more than mothershighlighted the social aspects of childbirth.Conclusion:Results highlight that childbirth represents an important turning point, which implies the transition from thinking for two to thinking for three. Inthis process, the two parents play, narratively, two different roles. Limitations, strengths, and implications are discussed.