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Ex Northampton Rugby star Cohen recreates famous L'Enfant image
Spencer Rowell’s L’Enfant, the famous image which encapsulated the softer side of men for a whole generation of women, has been recreated by rugby legend Ben Cohen MBE with his baby daughter Isabelle, for the new Problem Shared Campaign to raise awareness of the challenging issues new fathers face. World Cup winner, and first time dad Ben Cohen, 29, has become involved with the Problem Shared campaign, which is sponsored by Colief Infant Drops and Cry-sis, to help raise awareness of the issues new dads can face and encourage parents to share their problems to allow them to enjoy the experience of having children. Cohen commented, “I can’t believe how much I love fatherhood, I genuinely really enjoy it, but nothing quite prepares you for it. One of the hardest things when it comes to looking after a crying baby is getting to know what cry is for what, which takes time and patience. I found there really wasn’t enough support and information for dads, particularly when it comes to having twins!
The 2008 ‘A Problem Shared’ campaign will be focusing on the role of fathers and the relationship of parents, after research by Colief discovered that 1 in 5 couples have admitted their sex life was “non-existent” in the first year of a baby’s life, while five per cent of couples have actually split up due to their baby’s constant crying.
“Many parenting campaigns place a key focus on mums, leaving dads lingering in the background and often not feeling as important, which can lead to the breakdown of communication and ultimately relationships.” commented Mary Buckley, founder of Colief Infant Drops “We felt it was important to help bring dads into the spotlight, and raise awareness of the role they play in baby care and how their involvement can help ease the pressure on mums and on their relationships.”
The campaign will focus on the key problems that can affect new parents such as dealing with infant colic and excessively crying babies. Part of the reason Cohen became involved with the campaign is due to his own personal experience. “The twins started to get colic symptoms at about 2-3 weeks. Harriette had it worse and would pull her knees up and cry for ages. When your baby is crying you just want an instant result to make it better. Abby was breastfeeding so we tried Colief Infant Drops which you add to the breast milk, and they seemed to ease their colic completely. The twins are 5 months old now and seem to have got over their colic but without a remedy it could have been really hard to cope – thankfully we had a really supportive family around us.” Cohen commented.
Janet Bullen from Cry-sis commented “The Problem Shared initiative aims to address common problems which affect new parents, such as colic, excessively crying babies or relationship changes and help them to seek solutions.”
Behind the scenes shot
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