NHS maternity, health visiting and other family services are failing babies by ignoring their fathers during the first postnatal year, according to the Fatherhood Institute’s latest evidence review, Bringing Baby Home, published for Father’s Day 2022. The report finds that NHS systems are not set up to engage with, assess and support new fathers - despite clear evidence about fathers’ impact on babies’ future health and wellbeing, including heightened risk of obesity, respiratory problems and impaired cognitive development. Read the full story »
Blog, Campaigns, Policy »
Watch the Daddy Leave video explainer.
Please note: the £152 figure quoted in the video has since been raised to £156.66.
Campaigns, Practice »
We know that sometimes it feels like you’re the forgotten parent. Nobody smiles at you or talks to you, invites you to appointments about the baby, or asks you how you are.
FI research, Policy »
Bringing Baby Home, our review of empirical evidence about UK fathers and fatherhood in the first postnatal year, explores who dads are; what they do as caregivers, and what influences this; what impact they have (on children and mothers); and how services engage with them.
Campaigns »
The Fatherhood Institute (UK charity number 1075104) is a small charity that has been working behind the scenes to raise the profile of ‘involved fatherhood’ since 1999.
FI research »
We often hear the phrase ‘families come in all shapes and
sizes’ these days. But in research, policy and practice there’s still a
tendency to define fathers in a simplistic and binary way: you’re either ‘resident’
or ‘non-resident’.
Practice, Training »
Watch our quick guide to FI training clip (1 min)
Many ‘official’ guidelines and policy documents call on family services to engage more, and more effectively, with fathers.
News »
Becoming Dad is our new guide for expectant and new fathers, launched in November 2021 by the Fatherhood Institute and Mental Health Foundation.
FI research »
The Perinatal Dad is a report by the Fatherhood Institute’s Head of Training, Jeszemma Howl, drawing on research she undertook – thanks to a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship – with the aim of exploring and examining the very best offer to families, that engages the father in the perinatal period and supports women to breastfeed for as they want to.