Paternal™
Terms and Conditions / Terms of Use
Effective Date: 4 August 2026
Last Updated: 4 August 2026
| Business | Paternal |
| Website | https://www.paternalapp.com |
| Contact | info@paternalapp.com |
| Launch platform | iOS only |
| Commercial model | Free access and paid subscriptions through Apple App Store In-App Purchase |
| Important notice Paternal provides general educational, informational and lifestyle content only. It is not a healthcare provider, emergency service, legal adviser or financial adviser. Users should always seek advice from appropriately qualified professionals where needed. |
1. Introduction
These Terms and Conditions / Terms of Use (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the Paternal mobile application, the Paternal website at www.paternalapp.com, and any related content, features, subscriptions, tools, materials or services provided by Paternal.
Please read these Terms carefully before using Paternal.
By downloading, accessing, subscribing to, or using Paternal, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not access or use Paternal.
2. About Paternal
Paternal is a mobile application and digital service designed to support expectant and new fathers, partners and families through pregnancy, labour, birth and early parenthood.
Paternal provides educational content, practical guidance, checklists, prompts, tools and resources intended to help users feel more informed, prepared and confident.
Paternal is operated in the United Kingdom. For questions about these Terms, please contact Paternal at www.paternalapp.com or info@paternalapp.com.
3. Important Medical, Health and Safety Disclaimer
Paternal provides general educational, informational and lifestyle content only.
Paternal is not a healthcare provider. Paternal does not provide medical advice, clinical advice, diagnosis, treatment, emergency support, midwifery services, mental health crisis support, medical monitoring, professional healthcare services, legal advice, financial advice or professional advisory services of any kind.
The App is not designed or intended to replace advice from a doctor, midwife, nurse, health visitor, mental health professional or other qualified healthcare provider.
You should always seek advice from an appropriately qualified healthcare professional regarding pregnancy, labour, birth, parenting, physical health, mental health, symptoms, medical conditions, medication, treatment decisions, clinical concerns or emergencies.
You must never disregard professional medical advice, delay seeking medical advice, or change any treatment, care plan or medical decision because of information provided through Paternal.
If you believe that you, your partner, your baby or any other person may be experiencing a medical emergency, you should immediately contact the relevant emergency services. In the United Kingdom, call 999 or attend your nearest Accident & Emergency department.
Use of Paternal is entirely at your own risk.
4. No Emergency or Crisis Support
Paternal is not an emergency service and must not be used in an emergency.
Paternal does not provide real-time healthcare support, clinical monitoring, safeguarding intervention, crisis intervention, mental health emergency support, or urgent advice.
If you or someone else may be at risk of harm, needs urgent medical attention, or is experiencing a crisis, you should contact emergency services, a qualified healthcare professional, NHS 111, your GP, maternity triage, or another appropriate urgent support service.
5. No Guarantee of Outcomes
Paternal is designed to provide general support and education. We do not guarantee that use of Paternal will result in any particular outcome.
We do not guarantee improved health outcomes, improved birth outcomes, reduced stress or anxiety, relationship improvements, parenting success, clinical accuracy for individual circumstances, suitability for any specific pregnancy, birth, family, medical condition or personal situation, uninterrupted access, error-free access, or that all content will remain available at all times.
Pregnancy, labour, birth and parenting involve individual circumstances, risks and decisions that should be discussed with appropriate professionals.
6. Eligibility
Paternal is intended for adults aged 18 or over.
By accessing or using Paternal, you confirm that you are at least 18 years old, have legal capacity to agree to these Terms, will use Paternal only for lawful purposes, will comply with these Terms, and will not use Paternal in a way that could harm Paternal, other users, or any third party.
Paternal is not intended for use by children.
7. Relationship with Our Privacy Policy
Your use of Paternal is also governed by our Privacy Policy.
Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store and protect personal information when you use the App, Website or related services.
If there is any conflict between these Terms and the Privacy Policy, these Terms will apply in relation to your contractual use of Paternal, and the Privacy Policy will apply in relation to our processing of personal information.
8. Access to the App and Website
Paternal is launching as an iOS application. You may access Paternal through Apple’s App Store and may also access related information through our Website.
You are responsible for ensuring that your device, operating system, internet connection, Apple account, and any other technical requirements are suitable for accessing and using Paternal.
Your mobile network provider, internet provider or device provider may charge you for data or other costs associated with accessing or using Paternal. You are responsible for those charges.
We may update, modify, suspend, restrict, withdraw or discontinue any part of Paternal at any time.
9. Apple App Store Terms
Where you download Paternal from Apple’s App Store or purchase a subscription through Apple In-App Purchase, Apple’s own terms and policies will also apply.
Apple’s Media Services Terms govern transactions through Apple services, including the App Store, in-app purchases and subscriptions. Apple’s terms explain how App Store transactions, renewals, cancellations and refund requests are handled.
If there is any conflict between these Terms and Apple’s terms in relation to payment processing, App Store subscription management, refunds handled by Apple, or Apple account matters, Apple’s terms may take precedence for those specific matters.
10. Free and Paid Subscription Access
Paternal may offer free access to selected content, features or tools and paid subscription access to premium content, features or tools.
Paid subscriptions are purchased and managed through Apple’s App Store In-App Purchase system. We do not directly collect or store your payment card details.
Subscription pricing, billing frequency, renewal terms and any trial periods will be shown to you before purchase through the App Store purchase flow.
By purchasing a paid subscription, you authorise Apple to charge the applicable subscription fees through your Apple account.
11. Subscription Renewal, Cancellation and Refunds
Paid subscriptions may automatically renew unless cancelled in accordance with Apple’s subscription cancellation process.
You are responsible for managing or cancelling your subscription through your Apple account settings. You can usually manage Apple subscriptions by going to Settings > Apple ID > Subscriptions.
Refund requests for App Store purchases are generally handled by Apple in accordance with Apple’s own policies. We do not control Apple’s refund decision-making process.
Nothing in these Terms affects any statutory consumer rights you may have under applicable law. UK consumer law includes protections for digital content and services, and consumer contract terms must be fair and transparent.
12. Cooling-Off Rights and Digital Content
Depending on the circumstances, UK consumers may have cancellation rights for distance contracts and digital content under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. Those regulations set out rules on pre-contract information, cancellation rights and digital content supplied online.
However, where digital content or digital services are supplied immediately after purchase, cancellation rights may be affected where the user has requested immediate access and acknowledged that cancellation rights may be lost or limited once digital supply begins.
Where Apple is responsible for processing your App Store purchase, subscription, cancellation or refund request, Apple’s applicable App Store terms and refund procedures will apply.
This section does not limit any rights you may have under applicable consumer law.
13. Acceptable Use
You agree that you will not use Paternal in any unlawful, harmful, abusive or inappropriate way.
- use Paternal for any illegal purpose;
- use Paternal to provide medical, clinical, legal, financial or professional advice to others;
- rely on Paternal as a substitute for professional advice;
- misuse, copy, scrape, extract, reproduce or republish content from Paternal without permission;
- attempt to reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, modify or interfere with the App;
- attempt to gain unauthorised access to Paternal, our systems, our servers or user data;
- interfere with the security, operation or availability of the App or Website;
- upload malicious code, viruses, malware, spyware or harmful files;
- use automated tools, bots, scraping tools or data extraction methods;
- use Paternal to build or support a competing product or service;
- impersonate another person or organisation;
- infringe our intellectual property rights or the rights of any third party;
- submit content that is unlawful, abusive, defamatory, harassing, discriminatory, threatening, obscene, misleading or harmful;
- use Paternal in a way that could damage our reputation;
- use Paternal in a way that could harm another user or third party; or
- attempt to circumvent any payment, subscription, security or access-control feature.
If we reasonably believe that you have breached these Terms, we may suspend, restrict or terminate your access to Paternal.
14. User Accounts
If Paternal introduces user accounts, profiles or login functionality, you may be required to provide accurate and complete information.
You will be responsible for keeping your login details secure, maintaining the confidentiality of your account, all activity that occurs under your account, promptly notifying us if you believe your account has been accessed without permission, and ensuring that your account information remains accurate and up to date.
We may suspend or terminate accounts where we reasonably believe there has been misuse, unauthorised access, a breach of these Terms, suspected fraud, or unlawful activity.
15. User Content
Paternal may allow users to submit, save or input information, notes, preferences, feedback, survey responses, checklist progress, app settings or other content.
You remain responsible for any content you submit or input.
You confirm that any content you provide is accurate to the best of your knowledge, does not infringe third-party rights, is not unlawful, abusive, defamatory, harmful, misleading or inappropriate, does not contain malicious code, does not contain confidential information belonging to another person unless you have permission to provide it, and does not include unnecessary sensitive medical information.
You retain ownership of your own content. However, you grant Paternal a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to use, store, process, display, reproduce and modify that content where reasonably necessary to provide, operate, secure and improve Paternal.
We do not claim ownership of your personal notes, saved content or app progress.
16. Feedback and Suggestions
If you provide ideas, suggestions, comments, feedback or recommendations about Paternal, you agree that we may use them without restriction or payment to you.
This includes using feedback to improve the App, Website, content, features, design, functionality, marketing or commercial strategy.
You agree that feedback is provided voluntarily and is not confidential unless we separately agree otherwise in writing.
17. Intellectual Property Rights
All intellectual property rights in Paternal belong to us or our licensors.
This includes rights in the Paternal name and brand, logos and visual identity, app design, website design, copy, text, articles and guidance, illustrations, graphics and icons, audio, video or visual content, checklists, frameworks and tools, software, source code and object code, databases and content structure, trademarks, trade names, domain names, know-how and business materials.
You are granted a limited, personal, revocable, non-transferable, non-exclusive licence to access and use Paternal for your own personal, non-commercial use in accordance with these Terms.
You must not copy, reproduce, distribute, modify, adapt, translate, sell, license, exploit, republish, upload, post, transmit, scrape, extract, mirror, frame or create derivative works from Paternal or any Paternal content without our prior written permission.
Users may not scrape, harvest, extract, download, reproduce, copy, index, aggregate, reuse or exploit substantial portions of any database, information repository, content library or dataset contained within Paternal. All UK and international database rights are expressly reserved.
All rights not expressly granted to you are reserved.
18. Copyright Complaints and Takedown Requests
We respect the intellectual property rights of others.
If you believe that content available through Paternal infringes your copyright or other intellectual property rights, please contact info@paternalapp.com.
Please include your full name and contact details, details of the work you claim has been infringed, details of the allegedly infringing content, where the content can be found, evidence that you own or are authorised to act for the owner of the rights, a statement that your complaint is made in good faith, and any other information reasonably necessary for us to assess your request.
We may remove or disable access to content where we reasonably believe it infringes third-party rights or creates legal risk.
We reserve the right to suspend or terminate access for users who repeatedly infringe intellectual property rights.
19. Third-Party Content, Websites and Services
Paternal may contain references or links to third-party websites, services, resources, articles, products, platforms or organisations.
Third-party links are provided for general convenience and information only.
We do not control third-party websites or services and are not responsible for their content, accuracy, availability, privacy practices, terms, security, advice, products, services, or any loss or damage arising from your use of them.
You should review the applicable terms and privacy policies of any third-party service before using it.
20. App Store, Device and Operating System Dependencies
Paternal depends on third-party platforms, including Apple’s App Store, iOS, device functionality, internet access and related services.
We are not responsible for failures, restrictions, outages, errors, compatibility issues, policy changes, device limitations or service interruptions caused by Apple, your device, your operating system, your internet service provider, your mobile network, or other third-party providers.
We may need to update Paternal from time to time to maintain compatibility, improve performance, fix bugs or add features.
If you do not install updates, some features may not work correctly or may become unavailable.
21. Availability and Changes to Paternal
We aim to make Paternal available and useful, but we do not guarantee that the App, Website or any feature will always be available, uninterrupted, secure or error-free.
We may, at any time and without liability, update Paternal, add or remove features, change content, correct errors, restrict access, suspend services, discontinue parts of Paternal, withdraw free or paid features, change subscription offerings or stop operating Paternal.
Where required by law or where a material change affects paid subscribers, we will take reasonable steps to provide appropriate notice.
22. Accuracy of Content
We work to ensure that Paternal content is useful, clear and accurate at the time it is published.
However, pregnancy, birth, parenting, healthcare guidance and best practice can change over time and may vary depending on individual circumstances, location, healthcare provider or professional advice.
Paternal content may contain errors, omissions, outdated information or generalisations.
We do not warrant or guarantee that content is complete, accurate, current, suitable for your personal circumstances, or free from error.
You should verify important information with appropriate healthcare professionals or trusted official sources.
23. No Professional Relationship
Your use of Paternal does not create a doctor-patient, clinician-patient, adviser-client, solicitor-client, therapist-client or other professional relationship between you and Paternal.
Paternal does not owe you any professional duty of care equivalent to that owed by a regulated healthcare provider, solicitor, financial adviser, therapist or other professional adviser.
24. Personal Responsibility
You are responsible for how you use Paternal and for any decisions you make based on content accessed through Paternal.
You agree that you will not rely on Paternal as your sole source of information for pregnancy, labour, birth, parenting, medical, mental health, legal, financial or safety decisions.
You should seek professional advice where appropriate.
25. Prohibited Reliance
You must not use Paternal to diagnose a medical condition, decide whether to seek medical treatment, delay contacting a healthcare professional, replace antenatal, maternity, postnatal or emergency care, act as a clinical monitoring tool, act as a substitute for safeguarding advice, act as a substitute for mental health crisis support, provide legal advice, provide financial advice, or act as the sole basis for decisions affecting health, safety, legal rights or financial position.
26. Warranties and Disclaimers
Paternal is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, we exclude all warranties, representations, conditions and guarantees, whether express or implied, relating to Paternal.
This includes any implied warranties or conditions relating to fitness for a particular purpose, availability, uninterrupted use, accuracy, completeness, compatibility, security, non-infringement, satisfactory quality, performance or suitability for individual circumstances.
However, nothing in these Terms limits any rights that cannot lawfully be excluded under applicable consumer law.
27. Limitation of Liability
Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability where it would be unlawful to do so.
In particular, nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, breach of your statutory rights where such rights cannot be excluded, or any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.
Subject to the above, and to the fullest extent permitted by law, Paternal will not be liable for indirect loss, consequential loss, loss of profit, loss of revenue, loss of business, loss of opportunity, loss of goodwill, loss of data, loss caused by reliance on general educational content, loss caused by failure to seek professional advice, loss caused by third-party services, loss caused by device, App Store or internet issues, loss caused by unauthorised access where you failed to keep account details secure, emotional distress arising from use of general content except where liability cannot lawfully be excluded, or any loss that was not reasonably foreseeable.
Where we are legally liable to you, our total liability to you for claims arising out of or in connection with Paternal will be limited to the greater of the amount you paid to Paternal through Apple for your subscription in the 12 months before the claim arose or £100.
This limitation applies only to the extent permitted by law.
28. Consumer Rights
If you are a consumer in the United Kingdom, you may have statutory rights under consumer law in relation to digital content and services. Nothing in these Terms is intended to remove or reduce rights that cannot lawfully be excluded.
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 includes statutory rights for digital content, including requirements that digital content should meet certain standards such as being as described, satisfactory quality and fit for a particular purpose where applicable.
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 also requires consumer contract terms and notices to be fair, and unfair terms are not binding on consumers.
If any part of these Terms is found to be unfair, invalid or unenforceable, the remaining parts will continue to apply.
29. Indemnity
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Paternal, its founders, officers, employees, contractors, suppliers, partners and licensors from and against any claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs and expenses arising from your breach of these Terms, your misuse of Paternal, your infringement of intellectual property rights, your unlawful conduct, your user content, your failure to seek professional advice where appropriate, your misuse of information obtained through Paternal, or your violation of any law or third-party rights.
This indemnity does not apply to the extent that the relevant claim arises from our own breach of these Terms, negligence or other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.
30. Suspension and Termination
We may suspend, restrict or terminate your access to Paternal if you breach these Terms, we reasonably suspect misuse, fraud, abuse or unlawful activity, we are required to do so by law, Apple, a regulator or another competent authority, your use creates risk for us, other users or third parties, we discontinue Paternal or any relevant feature, or your subscription expires, is cancelled, fails to renew, or cannot be validated.
You may stop using Paternal at any time.
Deleting the App from your device may not automatically cancel a paid subscription. You must cancel subscriptions through your Apple account settings.
Sections of these Terms that by their nature should continue after termination will continue to apply, including intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnity, governing law and dispute provisions.
31. Updates to These Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time.
We may make changes to reflect changes to Paternal, new features, subscription changes, legal or regulatory changes, App Store requirements, technical changes, security requirements, business changes or improvements to clarity.
Where changes are material, we will take reasonable steps to notify users, such as through the App, Website, App Store listing or email where appropriate.
Your continued use of Paternal after updated Terms take effect will indicate acceptance of the updated Terms.
If you do not agree to updated Terms, you must stop using Paternal and cancel any active subscription through Apple if applicable.
32. Complaints and Disputes
If you have a complaint or concern about Paternal, please contact us first so that we can try to resolve it.
Email: info@paternalapp.com
Please include your name, contact details, a clear description of your complaint, relevant dates, screenshots or supporting information where useful, and what outcome you are seeking.
We will aim to review and respond within a reasonable period.
33. Governing Law and Jurisdiction
These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales.
If you are a consumer resident in another part of the United Kingdom, you may also have rights under the laws of your place of residence.
Subject to any mandatory consumer law rights, the courts of England and Wales will have jurisdiction over disputes arising out of or in connection with these Terms or Paternal.
34. Assignment
You may not transfer, assign or otherwise deal with your rights or obligations under these Terms without our prior written consent.
We may transfer or assign our rights and obligations under these Terms to another organisation, including in connection with a merger, acquisition, restructuring, sale of assets or business transfer, provided this does not materially reduce your rights under these Terms.
35. Severability
If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid, unlawful or unenforceable, that provision will be treated as modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid, lawful and enforceable.
If modification is not possible, the relevant provision will be deemed deleted.
The remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.
36. No Waiver
If we do not immediately enforce any right under these Terms, this does not mean we have waived that right.
Any waiver must be confirmed by us in writing.
37. Entire Agreement
These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and any applicable subscription information shown through the App Store, form the agreement between you and Paternal in relation to your use of Paternal.
38. Contact Us
If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact Paternal at www.paternalapp.com or info@paternalapp.com.
| Legal review note This document has been prepared as a practical draft for publication readiness. It should be reviewed by a qualified legal adviser before the App is launched or published to the App Store. |
Appendix A. Key User-Facing Summary
| Area | Summary |
| Medical use | Paternal is educational only and does not provide diagnosis, treatment, clinical advice or emergency support. |
| Subscriptions | Paid subscriptions are purchased, renewed, cancelled and refunded through Apple where applicable. |
| Intellectual property | Paternal owns or licenses its content, brand, design, software and materials. Users receive only a limited personal licence. |
| User responsibility | Users must seek professional advice for medical, legal, financial, safety or emergency matters. |
| Consumer rights | Nothing in the Terms removes UK consumer rights that cannot lawfully be excluded. |
| Governing law | The Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, subject to mandatory consumer protections. |
© 2026 Paternal. All rights reserved.
39. Artificial Intelligence Features
Paternal may from time to time use artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning systems or similar technologies to provide content, recommendations, summaries, educational materials, personalisation features, translations, chatbot functionality, assistance tools or other App features.
Any AI-generated content is provided for general informational and educational purposes only and may contain inaccuracies, omissions, outdated information, incomplete information or errors.
Paternal makes no representation or warranty regarding the accuracy, reliability, completeness, suitability or fitness for any purpose of AI-generated content. AI-generated content must not be relied upon as medical, clinical, healthcare, emergency, legal, financial or professional advice.
40. No Guarantee of Pregnancy, Birth or Parenting Outcomes
Paternal provides educational content, practical guidance and informational resources only.
Paternal makes no representation, warranty or guarantee regarding fertility outcomes, conception outcomes, pregnancy outcomes, pregnancy progression, labour outcomes, birth outcomes, breastfeeding outcomes, infant outcomes, parenting outcomes, family outcomes, relationship outcomes or wellbeing outcomes.
Every pregnancy, birth, child, parent and family situation is different and users should seek appropriate professional advice where necessary.
41. Safeguarding and Welfare
Paternal is not a safeguarding service.
Paternal should not be relied upon to identify, assess, monitor, manage or report abuse, neglect, domestic violence, coercive control, exploitation, safeguarding concerns, mental health crises or emergency situations.
Where there are concerns regarding the welfare or safety of any adult, child, infant or unborn child, users should immediately contact the appropriate healthcare, safeguarding, social care, law enforcement or emergency service organisation.
42. Prohibited AI Training and Model Development
Users must not use any part of Paternal, including content, text, images, graphics, branding, software, databases, user interfaces, educational content, audio content, video content, recommendations or outputs generated through the App for the purpose of training, benchmarking, validating, developing or improving artificial intelligence systems, machine learning models or large language models without Paternal’s prior written consent.
43. Competitive Use Restriction
Users must not use Paternal, its content, structure, user journeys, features, functionality, recommendations, prompts, tools, databases, subscription model or educational materials for the purpose of creating, operating, benchmarking or improving a competing application, website, product, service or business.
44. Events Beyond Our Reasonable Control
Paternal shall not be liable for delays, interruptions, suspension of services or failures resulting from circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including internet outages, Apple App Store outages, hosting failures, cyber attacks, malware incidents, labour disputes, natural disasters, severe weather events, pandemics, public emergencies, government action, war, civil unrest or utility failures.
Our obligations shall be suspended for the duration of such events and any reasonable recovery period.
45. Apple App Store Acknowledgement
Where the App is downloaded through Apple’s App Store, Apple is not responsible for maintenance, support services, product claims, legal compliance claims or intellectual property claims relating to the App.
Apple and its subsidiaries shall be third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce relevant provisions of these Terms against users.
46. Future Features and Beta Services
Paternal may introduce beta, preview, trial, experimental or early-access features from time to time.
Such features are provided on an as-is and as-available basis and may change, contain defects, operate differently from final releases, be suspended or withdrawn at any time, or be discontinued without notice.