Campaigners call for better paternity leave
BBCDads and charity leaders in the north-east of England have backed a campaign calling on the government to improve paternity leave.
New fathers currently get up to two weeks consecutive statutory leave, paid at £187.18 a week, or 90% of their average weekly earnings.
Campaign group The Dad Shift said it was the least generous paternity leave in Europe.
The government has said it will launch a "full review" into paternity and shared leave.
Scott Luke, a father of two in Wallsend, told the BBC how he had struggled following the birth of his daughter because paternity leave did not give him enough time or pay to care for his wife and bond with his new child.
He told the BBC: "My partner Victoria had a C-section with our second born, I took two weeks' annual leave and two weeks' paternity.
"When I went back to work, I just didn't feel ready.
"I was worried about my partner being at home with two children, a very boisterous toddler and a new born baby.
"I lost around £1,400 of pay."
Alex Lloyd Hunter, co-founder of national charity The Dad Shift, said the UK's paternity provision was bad for both mothers and fathers, because it limited the choices families had about who could return to work and who looked after the children.
He said: "As a bare minimum we think the government needs to move to six weeks paid at 90% of your salary - that's what you get in the first part of maternity leave.
"Longer term, you can look at countries like Spain where you get sixteen weeks and Sweden, which offers each parent 90 days and then 300 days to share between them."
The government has set out measures in its employment rights act which it says will make work pay for families, including a right to parental leave from day one of employment.
It has also promised a review of paternity and shared leave.
Lola McEvoy, Labour MP for Darlington, recently called for a change to employment rights for fathers taking paternity leave.
She told BBC Politics North: "Dads want to spend time with their children, and that's good for mums, and good for babies as well.
"People say the answer is that men should take more shared parental leave, but they don't, there's only a 2% uptake because it's not really feasible for women to go back early."
The shadow transport minister, Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake, said while he was sympathetic to the campaigners' cause, the impact on small businesses must be considered.
He said: "Of course you want to make sure fathers have crucial days and weeks and months.
"There is a limit to what business can deliver for society, we can't see them as a cow to be milked."
Nikki Masterman, from Blyth-based Inspired HR, said the wide raft of employment rights changes would put business under enormous strain, and enhanced paternity leave could add even more pressure on small firms.
"I see it from both sides," she said. "There's real potential for what it can do families, especially on limited incomes.
"But I also see the challenges for small businesses.
"There a lot coming for businesses financially and resource wise. They're going to struggle to get their head around it.
"Financially I think it's going to break some, we're already seeing it happening."