There is a name for it. If you can get father off the couch and away from the TV sports program long enough to help care for baby.. he is said to be "allomothering" He is an "alloparent".

Allomothering - "Caretaking of infants by individuals other than the infant's mother. This does not necessarily include suckling the infant."

Vervets, cebus monkeys, squirrel monkeys, and macaques are all known for allomothering performed by females not closely related to the pair. These alloparents help by carrying the infant, providing food, and guarding the infant from predators. Cebus monkey females have even been known to nurse infants not their own when looking after them.

Primate females with no children of their own participate in allomothering, and evidence from studies by Sara Harding and Lynn Fairbanks shows that females without offspring “tried to allomother more frequently than what you'd expected based on their proportion of the group's population, while parous females (female who has had a baby of its own) tried it much less than expected from their population in the group.

Jane Lancaster noted the reproductive benefits for primates as k-strategists in learning to be better moms. The theory is supported by evidence of the success of allomothering as a learning technique. “Lynn Fairbanks studied vervets and found that first-time mothers with high alloparenting experience raised 100% of their first offspring to maturity, but mothers with low experience had less than a 50% survival rate of their first infant.”

The theory is supported by evidence of the success of allomothering as a learning technique. “Lynn Fairbanks studied vervets and found that first-time mothers with high alloparenting experience raised 100% of their first offspring to maturity, but mothers with low experience had less than a 50% survival rate of their first infant.”