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Background: In recent years, pregnancy and maternity care and the child health centre have changed. Instead of only focusing on mother and child, they now try to include the whole family. Meanwhile the father’s role has changed, and fathers play a more active role in childcare. Despite this, mothers remain the main users of the healthcare services. Little research has been conducted on how fathers feel the healthcare services cater for their interests, and what can be done to increase fathers’ participation. Objective: The purpose of the study was to describe first-time fathers’ perceptions of the encounter with pregnancy, maternity and post-natal care and the child health centre throughout the pregnancy and birth, and in the child’s first three months of life. Method: The study has a qualitative design and consists of nine individual interviews with first-time fathers. We carried out a qualitative content analysis of the data material. Results: We identified two categories that describe the fathers’ encounter with the healthcare services: being on the outside and inclusion. Being on the outside is described through two sub-categories – exclusion and being overridden. Inclusion deals with the fathers’ perceptions of adaptation and participation in the healthcare services. Conclusion: The study describes healthcare services where fathers experience a varying degree of inclusion. The services focus mainly on mother and child, even though the family perspective should apply. The fathers want to play a more active role and be more included during pregnancy, childbirth and follow-up at the child health centre. In order to attain this degree of inclusion, the healthcare services must acknowledge fathers as independent and equal carers. They must also make better provision for the participation of fathers.

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