Medicare-backed mental health check-ups would be available to expectant fathers under a new plan aimed at involving men more during pregnancy.
Victorian crossbencher Helen Haines says there should also be a review conducted into the way pregnancy care is delivered to ensure dads are included as equal partners.
"We do very little as a society to support men's health during their partners' pregnancies," she wrote in an essay launched on Thursday.
"Let us add value to routine pregnancy care and systematically engage with the health of fathers."
Dr Haines' plan involves providing subsidised mental health check-ups for fathers during pregnancy - an initiative she says could be introduced this year - while her proposed review could be started now and delivered in the longer-term.
She wrote the reforms are needed because pregnancy is largely still seen as "women's business", and men have reported feeling isolated during the process.
"When men encounter the health care system during pregnancy, they overwhelmingly report feeling peripheral at best and marginalised or excluded at worst," she said.
Previous to her election to parliament in May, Dr Haines spent more than 32 years as a nurse, midwife, health administrator and rural health researcher.
