I came across an interesting article out of the Omaha World-Herald about a program that is aimed to get Fathers involved in their baby’s life. Baby Boot Camp is a program put on by the Essential Pregnancy Services of Omaha, Nebraska. This program was designed to get Fathers involved in their child’s life as early as possible and created to counter act the ill effects of teen pregnancy, crisis pregnancy, and single parenthood.

Coordinator of the Nebraska Fatherhood Initiative, LaRon Henderson states:

"The earlier a man gets involved in his child's life, the greater chance he's going to stay — and the better it's going to be for that child. An active Father married or not, lowers the risk of daughters becoming teen moms or sons becoming (high school) dropouts.”

Students of Baby Boot Camp are taught basic things like how to properly change a diaper along with other things about newborn baby care. Baby Boot Camp is broken up into ten sessions and each session is led by experienced, veteran Fathers. The program is about being there for the baby and helping to take care of the baby, regardless of whether or not the Mother and Father are still in a relationship or not.

This type of program makes sense to me. I imagine that there are some Dads out there who might just be afraid of fatherhood, especially if they haven’t had much experience or been around babies very often. This type of program could help give them some confidence.

This type of program could also help Mothers because if the Father is becoming involved she may feel less pressure or need to place her child for adoption and in turn, she may feel more confident about parenting. However, just because a Father attends this type of program doesn’t necessarily mean that he is going to stay involved in the child’s life, but I do think it’s more likely to happen.

For more information about Baby Boot Camp programs or to see if there is one in your area, visit this website.

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