 The word parent should not just mean mother and work needs to be done to stop fathers feeling marginalised by society. That's according to a new report by the Scottish Parliament's Equal Opportunities Committee. As part of their inquiry into fathers and parenting, the committee heard from dads who have encountered obstacles in their day-to-day lives. I took them to mums and tums and to baby bouts and all that and being the only dad in the room and nobody speaks to you. I was refused to go to breastfeeding support sessions run by the health board. I feel isolated even in the playground. You know people look, it's not a nice situation to be in. The committee suggests that NHS Scotland work with local health boards and authorities to ensure that new fathers can access pre and post birth classes and support networks, as the committee's convener explained. The presumption that we are trying to tackle with this report is that parenting only means mum and it's not, it actually means father as well or dad as well. There is a lot of fathers who want to be very hands-on with their children and also with the mum but when they go to places like antenatal classes they're excluded or they're not included. There's not a lot of support for them to give them advice about antenatal and prenatal care as well. The imagery in the hospitals in NHS is very very poor, they don't show fathers as in the caring role either, it's always the mums with the babies as well but also the attitude of the NHS staff that when they're actually dealing with the mums and the dads that they should actually automatically include the dads in all the discussions as well that's very important. To read the committee's report in full please visit the Scottish Parliament website.