🇿🇦 South Africa
New dad: from the first plans to the first years
Appointments, feeding, nights and paperwork. Take it one stage at a time, together.
Your timeline
Birth to two weeks
Share feeding, changing, soothing and meals. Confirm follow-up appointments and the birth-registration deadline. Never shake a baby; if overwhelmed, put them safely down and take a short break.
Leave and family paperwork
Leave, benefits, parentage and parental responsibility are distinct legal questions.
What to prepare
Check current leave eligibility, notification rules, pay and job protection with the relevant authority and employer; record your agreed plan.
What to check
Confirm legal parentage and decision-making authority separately. Obtain family-law advice for unmarried, donor-conceived, adopted, surrogate-born or cross-border families.
In South Africa
Do not present the old ten-day father-only entitlement as the complete current rule. The Constitutional Court’s 3 October 2025 Van Wyk judgment introduced an interim shared parental-leave framework, described officially as four months and ten days shared between parents. Agree allocation and notice with employers, taking account of birth-parent recovery protections. Ask the Department of Employment and Labour or a labour lawyer about the current order and any subsequent legislation. Leave entitlement does not guarantee equivalent UIF payment or employer salary.
In South Africa
Register the birth with Home Affairs within 30 days. Ask which parentage documents are needed for your family; late registration has extra requirements. A birth certificate, citizenship and permission for international travel are separate issues.
Health and emergency contacts
This site does not replace medical advice. For a life-threatening emergency, call 112 from a mobile phone; 10177 for an ambulance.