As we reported here, there are some funny goings-on in Australia on the regulated pregnancy front. Well, that’s to be expected when the health minister is a Catlick ex-seminarian nicknamed The Mad Monk.

Now, it seems that Australian men are suffering too.

A recent report tells us:

Up to 10 per cent of first-time fathers suffer postnatal depression but in most cases their symptoms go untreated, a university researcher says. . . . She said existing research in Australia revealed many men experienced anxiety and depression when they become fathers for the first time, but more support was given to new mothers.

“Men’s experiences of their transition to fatherhood have not been a major focus for investigation in Australia or overseas, despite between five and 10 per cent experiencing depression, anxiety, stress and psychological distress,” she said.

As we maintain here at Birth Pangs, parenthood is not something to be taken on frivolously. Parents of all genders need support.

We wondered, though, whether those numbers from Australia could be extrapolated to new fathers in general. So we did a little more research and found this.

Yikes!

Men’s groups are calling for mandatory paternity testing of all newborns after revelations that one in four Australian men who submit paternity tests discover they are not the father of children they had believed were theirs.

Holy moly! One in four?!?! No wonder Aussie daddies are depressed.

About a quarter of paternity tests done by one of Australia’s largest DNA laboratory companies show the man submitting the sample is not the father, compared with estimates of one in 10 “exclusions” a decade ago.

The number of paternity tests taken in Australia has doubled from 3000 in 2003 to more than 6000 last year.

Thousands of men are now turning to DIY testing kits, available over the internet, to discover whether they are the biological father while they are still in a relationship — without telling their partners of their suspicions.

One in ten a decade ago. One in four now. What are those Aussie hussies up to?

“The increase is across all social classes and ages — it affects everyone,” according to company director Gary Miller.

“Before, a lot of the work was for men who had been contacted by a woman or the CSA for maintenance and wanted a test to prove they weren’t the father.

“Now we see a lot of men in a relationship or just out of one who are just looking for reassurance that they are the father and then find out they’re not and are completely devastated.”

Read this poor guy’s story:

MIKE (whose name has been changed for legal reasons) brought up four children believing they were his.

The labourer from rural NSW was married for 10 years. He had three boys, now 14, 13 and 10, with his wife before having a vasectomy.

When his wife then fell pregnant, he believed the vasectomy had failed and accepted the girl, now nine. But when she again fell pregnant, in 2003, and had an abortion, the marriage fell apart.

Mike, now 39, was initially suspicious that only the youngest child was not his and used a DIY kit that proved he was not the father.

Within weeks, more tests showed only the eldest was his.

One in four again! But the other way ’round!

Mandatory paternity testing in a country led by a buncha mandatory pregnancy wingnuts. Makes sense. They don’t want any ‘loose’ women getting away with *gasp* non-procreational sex, so why should ‘loose’ babies get away with non-DNA based support?

And, most importantly, why should the good men of Australia PAY for cuckoo-children? And get depressed to boot?