Current & Future Dads

If you and your partner are expecting, or currently have a baby, your family deserves the best care possible. Studies have shown that mothers are 1.5 times more likely to receive prenatal care in the first trimester when fathers are involved during pregnancy.¹ A father’s involvement before his child is born plays an important role in preventing death during the first year of life – particularly if the infant is Black.² During infancy, fathers can support mothers in breastfeeding and in following safe sleep guidelines, both of which can reduce infant deaths.¹

Unfortunately, we often ignore the role of fathers in the birth experiences of women.¹ Many Black men are already disenfranchised from their ability to participate in fatherhood due to structural racism and its real-life impacts on lower wages, chronic unemployment, discriminatory hiring practices, a history of mass incarceration, inequity in educational opportunities, and other factors, that disproportionately affect Black men in America^.3  1. Fathers: Powerful Allies for Maternal and Child Health. Insights, National Institute for Children’s Health Quality. Retrieved from:
https://nichq.org/insight/fathers-powerful-allies-maternal-and-child-health.
2. University of South Florida (USF Health). (2010, June 17). Father involvement in pregnancy could reduce infant mortality. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 19, 2019 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100617111245.htm
3. Smith, Michael D. (2017, January 10). The dangerous myth of the ‘missing black father’. Washington Post. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/01/10/the-dangerous-myth-of-the-missing-black-father/.