Welcoming an infant can be an overwhelmingly daunting duty, owing to the late-night feedings, constant crying, incessant diaper changes and total lack of sleep.
The unprecedented pressures of parenting have even prompted a few frazzled and fatigued first-time fathers to drink themselves sick.
However, an October 2023 study from the Department of Public Health Sciences of Stockholm University in Sweden found that new fathers who take paternity leave from their jobs have a significantly reduced risk of being hospitalized due to alcohol consumption.
“We found that after the [fathers’ paternal leave policy in Sweden] was implemented, there was a 34% decrease in [alcohol-related] hospitalizations among fathers in the two years after birth, as well as smaller decreases up to eight and 18 years after birth,” study author Helena Honkaniemi said in a statement.
Honkaniemi and her co-author Sol Juárez found that the more time novice dads worldwide spend acclimating to child-rearing — rather than struggling to simultaneously juggle work and parenting — the less likely they are to use liquor as a boozy crutch.
“Job-protected and adequately reimbursed parental leave can offer respite to fathers during the transition to parenthood, a period often defined by financial instability and poor work-life balance,” wrote the authors. “This could result in decreased coping behaviors such as alcohol consumption.
“Moreover, fathers who spend more time at home may also be encouraged to practice greater behavioral self-regulation around their children,” read the report, “with fewer opportunities for leisure-time alcohol use.”
Since the paid parental leave system was first made available in Sweden in 1974, the proportion of days away from the office claimed by fathers has increased from 1% to 30%, per the report.
In 1995, when Swedish papas were granted 30 days of paid leave, the percentage of guys taking advantage of the time off spiked from 43% to a whopping 75% — and demonstrated psychiatric improvements among new fathers.
Today, parents of children born in the Northern European country can use up to 480 days of job-protected paid leave together, of which 390 are reimbursed at around 80% of parents’ income and 90 days at a universal flat rate.
But the benefits of bringing up babies aren’t quite as good for working mommies and daddies in the U.S.
While there is no federal law guaranteeing paid parental leave in America, the Family and Medical Leave Act, or FMLA, provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid parental leave to eligible employees in connection with the birth or adoption of a child, according to the Department of Labor.
However, FMLA is only available to 9-to-5ers in certain states and is often up to the discretion of the employer based on the company’s size.
In New York, expecting parents hoping to take time off when their kid arrives are only eligible for the unpaid sabbatical if they’ve worked for their employer for at least 12 months — putting in at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months prior to the leave.
Wannabe temporary stay-at-home caretakers, too, must work at a location where the employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles of the worksite.
But Big Apple moms like Cassidy Crough, 34, who gave birth to a stillborn baby at 36 weeks in March 2022, don’t qualify for the extended absence. Since suffering her loss, Crough — who’s grappled with postpartum medical complications and depression — has led the charge in urging Governor Kathy Hochul to modify FMLA laws to include mothers and fathers of stillborn infants.
And it may be a worthwhile change for anyone grappling with the mental and emotional pangs of parenthood.
For the new study, the analysts observed the alcohol-related hospitalizations and deaths of more than 220,000 first-time fathers of singleton children born in Sweden from January 1992 to December 1997. Over the course of 18 years, the scientists routinely conducted follow-up probes into each father’s spirits-induced medical issues.
Researchers identified alcohol-related hospital stays as issues pertaining to intoxication, alcohol-related mental and behavioral disorders, as well as alcohol-related cardiovascular, stomach, liver and other diseases.
Honkaniemi and Juárez discovered a massive decline in the post-birth hospitalizations of dads who took paid leave within the first two years of welcoming their little one. The decrease in hooch-centric emergency room visits remained true during follow-ups at both the eight-year and the 18-year check-ins.
“Parents balancing multiple roles, especially between work and family life, may experience so-called role overload manifesting in stress and, ultimately, elevated coping behaviors including alcohol use,” read the report. “Through adequate employment-related and financial protections, parental leave can, therefore, reduce stress, related coping behaviors and, ultimately, poor mental health.”
The Sweden-based researchers noted that previous studies on the perks of paid leave have shown to be beneficial for folks starting families in the Land of Liberty, too.
“Quasi-experimental evidence from the United States … has found that a state policy introducing paid leave also decreased risks of self-reported alcohol use among fathers,” said the study.
Juárez hopes the findings inspire global change.
“Policymakers should consider that fathers’ parental leave not only promotes more gender-equal participation in childcare but can also reduce alcohol-related harms,” she said in a release.
