The father cradled his newborn daughter as we reviewed routine infant care. Her mother, still recovering from childbirth, joined by video from home. He held his daughter with the tentative confidence and unmistakable love of a first-time parent. As we wrapped up our visit, he shook his head and said, “I can’t believe I have to go back to work tomorrow.”
As a pediatrician, I am unfortunately familiar with this type of story. Parents want to be present during the first days of their children’s lives. Too often, they cannot afford to be — especially fathers.
Medicine has long recognized that the earliest relationships shape lifelong health. Pediatricians counsel families about breastfeeding, safe sleep, vaccines, and reading aloud, because early experiences influence brain development. Yet we have largely overlooked fathers as another powerful contributor to that environment.
For decades, fathers were viewed primarily as supporters of mothers and a financial provider for the family. The science tells a different story. A growing body of evidence shows that fathers make unique, independent contributions to children’s health and development. The American Academy of Pediatrics recognized this shift in a landmark 2016 policy statement calling for pediatricians to actively engage fathers as caregivers, not bystanders.
Children benefit when fathers are actively engaged from the very beginning. Studies have linked engaged fatherhood to strong language development, improved emotional regulation, and better cognitive outcomes. Fathers’ involvement also supports maternal mental health by sharing the demanding work of caring for a newborn during a period when mothers are at increased risk for postpartum depression.
The science extends beyond children’s outcomes. Fatherhood changes fathers themselves.
Neuroscientists including Ruth Feldman and Darby Saxbe have shown that men undergo measurable changes in brain networks involved in empathy, emotional processing, and caregiving after the birth of a child. These findings match neuroanatomy changes in mothers, meaning the process was thought to be related to pregnancy and childbirth. Rather, the act of caregiving is a biologically adaptive process.
These changes are strengthened through hands-on parenting. Holding an infant, soothing a crying baby at 2 a.m., changing diapers, and feeding a newborn are not simply parenting tasks. These acts of love build the neural circuitry of caregiving.
This research should change how pediatricians think about fathers. We routinely encourage them to attend prenatal visits, deliveries, and newborn appointments. But we rarely acknowledge the structural barriers that prevent many from remaining engaged during the very period when their involvement is most consequential.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only about one-quarter of American workers have access to paid family leave through their employer. A 2026 study found mothers took on average 7.2 weeks from work after childbirth, while fathers took just three days. Another recent study found that fewer than three-quarters of fathers took any parental leave, and only 36% were able to take more than two weeks away from work.
Despite growing momentum at the state level, the United States remains one of the few high-income countries without a national paid parental leave program. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia have enacted paid family leave laws, meaning families’ access to leave largely depend on where they live. For many fathers, returning to work days after childbirth may not be a choice. It becomes an economic necessity to care for their newborn. Paid family leave is often debated as labor policy. Skeptics raise concerns at the cost of paid leave. Pediatricians should recognize it as child health policy.
We advocate for vaccines because they prevent disease. We promote Reach Out and Read because early literacy improves developmental outcomes. We screen for food insecurity because social drivers impact child health. Policies that allow fathers to build early relationships with their infants deserve to be viewed through the same preventive lens. They create the conditions to allow investment in positive childhood development.
Yet, many fathers never receive enough time to build that relationship. The father I met that morning did not need another parenting handout or counseling on early childhood development. He needed time with his baby, and that is something I cannot prescribe but public policy can.
We cannot legislate parental love, but we can create the conditions to allow it to grow. As medicine continues to embrace the science of early childhood development, it must also embrace what that science increasingly tells us. Paid parental leave to better support fathers is not simply good family policy. It is good pediatric care.
Nishant Pandya is a general pediatrician in Philadelphia and a father to an incredible toddler.
STAT’s coverage of health challenges facing men and boys is supported by Rise Together, a donor advised fund sponsored and administered by National Philanthropic Trust and established by Richard Reeves, founding president of the American Institute for Boys and Men; and by the Boston Foundation. Our financial supporters are not involved in any decisions about our journalism.
