Both mothers and fathers play crucial and qualitatively different roles in the socialization of the child and thus each role is crucial to a child's opitmal development. 

The family is the root of a stable society, and scientific research consistently demonstrates that all children and adolescents experience better health and well-being when they are part of a healthy nuclear family.

Decreasing your child's risk of depression starts with ensuring that your child is able to build a relationship and bond with both of his parents as early and as often as possible. 

Some additional tips:

Breastfeed your baby. Aside from the many physical and emotional benefits of breastfeeding, including increased immunity and improved bonding between mother and child, breastfeeding in infancy has also been shown to lower the risk of a child suffering from depression in adutlhood.

Respond to your baby when he cries. Your baby will have a difficult time making appropriate attachments and building crucial relationships if he doesn't develop a strong, healthy parent-child attachment in infancy. Picking him up every time he cries won't "spoil" him. It will help him develop a sense of trust in the world and learn to rely on you as a secure base from which to explore the world. That security and confidence will eventually result in less crying and more independence. (Parenting Newborns)