An Expectant Father's Dreams: Masculinity

When men find out they are going to be fathers for the first time, they may feel their masculinity is being threatened by their strong protective feelings towards their mates and strong nurturing feelings towards their unborn children.

This can lead to dreams where masculinity is questioned or over exaggerated.  An expectant father may dream a lot about stereotypically masculine activities and have macho visions. For example, he may dream of winning football games triumphs in a boxing ring. This may be a way of filling an urge to be more masculine due to a threatened sense of masculinity. The expectant father may also be exploring stereotypical gender roles due to a pressure to conform to them upon the birth of his child. Through dreams like this, an expectant father can explore what it means to be a man now that he is going to have to play a new role as a father.

Early in their wives' pregnancies, expectant fathers may also have very sexualized dreams. In fact, it is common for expectant fathers to have a higher than usual number sexual dreams during the early part of their partner's pregnancy. An expectant father may dream of having sex with his partner, other women, prostitutes, and even other men. This is normal, and it is all part of working out a new concept of masculinity and how he will adapt to his new role as a father. It may also reflect worry over how the pregnancy and coming child will affect his and his partner's sex life. Sexual dreams usually decrease as a man's partner moves into her second trimester of pregnancy.

An expectant father will also dream of protecting and caring for his partner. Again, these types of dreams are a way of testing out how the new roles and responsibilities of fatherhood fit with his concepts of masculinity and self.