Assessing birth experience in fathers as an important aspect of clinical obstetrics: how applicable is Salmon's Item List for men?

•A large number of expectant fathers attend the birth of their child.•Validated assessment tools for paternal birth experience are missing in clinical routine.•Salmon׳s Item List is a short, validated tool in mothers.•For men, factor analysis yielded a four-factor solution accounting for 54.5% of the variance.•The German version of Salmon׳s Item List is an appropriate instrument in the main domain (fulfillment) (Cronbach׳s α=0.87).