Visitors to Pinner Memorial Park may have noticed a number of baby grows hung up on a washing line, featuring the words ‘two weeks isn’t enough’.
This is because Pinner residents and new parents Tom and Mary are making a stand to help “fix Europe’s worst paternity leave”.
The stunt aimed to draw attention to the hidden crisis that 45 per cent of UK fathers experience at least two symptoms of clinical anxiety or depression in the first year after their baby’s birth, according to research by The Dad Shift and Movember.
Polling also found that nearly one in 15 new dads had experienced suicidal thoughts in their first year of fatherhood.
Despite the worrying statistics, a clear solution also emerged, with 82 per cent of fathers saying that improving paternity leave is the “single biggest action the government could take to support new dads’ mental health”.
Currently, the UK continues to offer the worst statutory paternity leave in Europe – just two weeks at less than half the minimum wage.
Poor paternity leave is also impacting mothers, who are left to cope when they are most vulnerable to postpartum depression.
To shine a light on this issue, more than 100 supporters, including 15 MPs, joined Tom and Mary in the stunt. Baby grows were seen in hundreds of locations from Premier League stadiums to the White Cliffs of Dover.
In addition, the world’s first DadStrike took place outside the Department for Business and Trade in London and the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on Wednesday, June 11.
George Gabriel, from The Dad Shift, shared: “Day one, most fathers face an impossible choice: earn or be present. The stress of carrying these competing expectations is breaking tens of thousands of dads each year. We can’t carry on like this.”
For more information about the cause, please visit www.dadshift.org.uk
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