Must read of the week: You're going to be a Dad! The new Dad's guide to pregnancy and the first year of fatherhood

You’re Going to Be A Dad! The New Dad’s Guide to Pregnancy and the First Year of Fatherhood by DaddiLife Books is THE essential step-by-step pregnancy and parenting guide for new first-time fathers and fathers-to-be.  

By Gwyneth Rees  

New fathers, and fathers-to-be, let’s be clear. If you are to buy just one thing to prepare you for your new arrival then let it be this book.  

And to all the new mothers, if your partner doesn’t pick up a copy then buy it for him! 

You’re Going to Be A Dad! The New Dad’s Guide to Pregnancy and the First Year of Fatherhood is a refreshingly honest book targeting the specific anxieties of dads during pregnancy that also gives wonderfully clear advice on how men can best support their partners during this time. 

Because of this, I would even go so far as to call it a feminist book. Today’s dads want to be the best possible parents and partners, and this book ensures they work together seamlessly as a team.  

First off, let’s make it clear what this book isn’t.  

Unlike many parenting guides aimed at dads, it isn’t patronising; it isn’t aimed at just the middle classes; it isn’t laddish; and it doesn’t sugar coat pregnancy in any way.  

Instead, here we have perhaps the first such book that provides all the essential insight and advice any new father needs to hit the ground running.  

Detailed and wholly accurate, it discusses not only what is happening in each trimester of a baby’s growth, both for mother and child, and what to expect during those first 12 dizzying months of your child’s life, but also what anxieties may crop up, and how to handle them. 

In addressing men in this way, this wonderful book speaks to a new generation of dads who are stepping up to the plate in terms of fatherhood: attending scans, taking parental leave and, even before that, engaging in the most healthy and effective way of making a baby.  

Speaking as a mum, it is certainly time that men had all the facts at their fingertips, and their own ‘space’ to air their concerns—and this book does this, and so much more. 

Author Han-Son Lee, previously a marketing professional for global companies such as Unilever and Warner Music, became a dad in 2014 and it changed his life. 

Recognising a pronounced lack in support for modern-day dads, he set up online hub DaddiLife.com a supportive parenting website and online community that provides guidance, product reviews as well as original research on what life is really like for modern-day fathers.  

Clearly it tapped into something, because DaddiLife is now the leading online destination for modern-day dads with more than 150,000 members coming together to celebrate fatherhood and share advice. 

This has also led Han-Son Lee to become one of the UK’s leading authorities on modern-day paternal parenting. 

It is this expertise built up over the past five years, that will make You’re Going to Be A Dad! The New Dad’s Guide to Pregnancy and the First Year of Fatherhood such a success.  

Chiefly, that is because this book tackles all the real issues dads face.   

These include how to deal with bonding difficulties with a new baby, miscarriage, post-partum depression, and the sensitive issue of intimacy with your partner after the baby’s birth.   

And it is also, perhaps, the first such guide to cover Covid-19 and the potential impact this may have on parenting in the future, such as becoming temporarily isolated from your family and having access to the important moments and milestones of the pregnancy journey. 

That is a huge appeal of the book, but another factor is the diverse range of views you get, thanks to 50 new and soon-to-be dads contributing their reflections on what they wish they’d known before, during, and after pregnancy. 

Many of these contributions are funny, all are honest, but most importantly they present an idea to the reader that—whatever happens to them—it is okay.  

The key charm of You’re Going to Be A Dad! is that alongside its encouragement and support, it shows that mistakes and mess-ups will happen but that parents survive. No one has to be perfect.  

It’s also worth pointing out that the book is not only well conceived (no pun intended), but also well-executed, being easy to follow and structured in such a way that you can quickly find exactly what you need.  

There are also biological details dotted throughout to help men understand the workings of the female body.