In our new research summary Maternal and Infant Health in the Perinatal Period: The Father's Role, we present a mass of evidence showing the profound benefits to all concerned of fathers' active and positive involvement before, during and after their children's birth.
And in an accompanying report aimed at the maternity sector, The Dad Deficit: The Missing Piece of the Maternity Jigsaw, we have called for a raft of changes to enable hospital maternity services to harness the positive support that most fathers can provide to mothers and babies - and to shape services that can also effectively challenge fathers' potential negative involvement.
But it's not just in the period before, during and after the birth that fathers matter. A host of evidence suggests that when fathers become and stay involved with their children from the earliest possible point, there are significant positive effects on the child - higher self-esteem and life satisfaction; higher educational achievement; better friendships with better-adjusted children; lower criminality and substance abuse; fewer behavioural problems.
Nursery providers can play a key role in supporting dads as actively involved fathers, thus setting the tone for a society in which fathers' day-to-day involvement in their children's lives is routine rather than an optional extra.
To help you develop a strategy, you may find our Toolkit for Father-Inclusive Practice useful. This takes you through a clear, easy-to-follow, eight-step process designed to translate the theory of father-inclusiveness into reality.
To access our research summaries and publications, and to sign up to our free e-newsletter, keeping you in touch with the latest news, research and best practice on fatherhood, visit www.fatherhoodinstitute.org.
