Parents were confused about the difference between ‘reserved leave’ and ‘concurrent leave’. In the main, parents focused on fathers taking reserved leave around the birth and at the same time as the mother, that is, concurrently. Parents thought 4 weeks was optimum.

Four weeks of concurrent leave after the birth of a baby is seen as important by parents for a range of reasons including to recover from caesarian section births; to support breastfeeding; to support mothers’ recovery; to care for older children; to undertake domestic work; to emphasise a team approach to care; and to provide general support for mothers. Some also identified this time as good for the marriage.

Only 2 weeks concurrent leave at the birth of a baby was seen as too little, especially for families without family support close by or where health complications arise and the mother and baby are in hospital for the first 2 weeks.

Four weeks is a pretty good stint for the husband to have off and just to help out. And I think it’s probably healthy for the marriage too… Especially for the first kid, it just feels like [2 weeks is] very early to be able to have to go back to work. And I felt sorry for a lot of my mates who had to go back to work [at] that stage. I think 4 weeks would be really good. (Jack, low income)

Parents agreed that it was ‘not possible’ or realistic for one parent to both care for a newborn and manage household and domestic chores, especially with more than one child at home. Parents said a concurrent leave period of 4 weeks would help couples to ‘enjoy the highs and lows together’ and support joint ownership of care.

I would’ve had heaps of time off. I would’ve loved to have had maybe a month off or something like that. That would be awesome because they’re so little and delicate at that age, it’s just a good time to be around, and it sucks to miss it. (David, middle income)

Two weeks, it goes very quickly, in my opinion. I think you feel like you’re just starting to relax and have that time together and then it’s all over. Whereas, if it was about 3 weeks or 4 weeks, I think the dad would be able to spend some really good quality time with that child as well. (Alexia, middle income)

The tasks around a newborn cannot be done by one parent. Or at least in our case, it wasn’t possible like breastfeeding, cooking, cleaning, laundry. (Kabir, high income, CALD)

I think for me the most benefit was seeing all the stuff that [Sarah] has to do. Particularly the stuff that I’m not able to do, which is all the breastfeeding and even getting up at nighttime and all that. I guess the only thing is breastfeeding, but that’s a big burden at the start. And if I wasn’t home, I just wouldn’t notice that as much. (Peter, middle income)

Parents recognised the long term benefits for fathers who were involved in the care of babies, reporting that the more involved fathers were in the early weeks of a child’s life, the more confidence they gained in taking on an equal share of the parenting duties. When fathers did not do this, they ended up doing more ‘fringe’ parenting.

That initial confidence I think too, I remember talking about that, if they (dads) miss those early stages and how things are done, by the time they have their leave, their partner just knows what needs doing and does it all the time by default. And I think that just chips away at the confidence and then they don’t perhaps get involved because they don’t want to do it wrong. (Sarah, middle income)

Four weeks of concurrent leave after the birth would provide the time for fathers to engage meaningfully in care and to appreciate the caring work of their partners, especially when mothers were establishing breastfeeding in the early weeks of a child’s life.