Newborn infants who received skin‐to‐skin contact with fathers after Caesarean sections showed stable physiological patterns

Wakefulness
Cot mean
Fathers arms Mean
Skin to Skin mean
TA B L E 3
Infants' wakefulness trend in the three groups; cot, fathers' arms and skin-to-skin groups and comparisons between groups
Wakefullness
Cot group
Fathers arms 
group
Skin-to-skin 
group
P-value
P-value
P-value
(n = 32)
(n = 34)
(n = 29)
Cot vs Fathers arms
Cot vs 
Skin-to-skin
Skin-to-skin vs 
Fathers arms
Mean (SD)
Mean (SD)
Mean (SD)
Time
45 minutes
4.375 (1.26)
3.558 (1.08)
4.068 (1.41)
.028
*
1.000
.329
60 minutes
4.125 (1.34)
3.147 (1.18)
4.000. (1.60)
.014
*
1.000
.048
*
75 minutes
3.843 (1.51)
3.441 (1.28)
4.034 (1.67)
.824
1.000
.354
90 minutes
3.343 (1.45)
2.852 (1.46)
3.827 (1.85)
.637
.712
.051
105 minutes
2.781 (1.36)
2.823 (1.36)
3.448 (1.90)
1.000
.287
.339
120 minutes
2.531 (1.66)
2.558 (1.46)
2.931(1.83)
1.000
1.000
1.000
Bold indicates that a statistical difference was found.
*P < .05 

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AYALA 
et

AL
.
infant's capacity for self-regulation.
5
It also promotes the father-in-
fant interaction that can occur in skin-to-skin contact immediately 
after a Caesarean section.
6,9
This specific caring model also seems 
to provide beneficial cardio-respiratory adaptation after birth.
17,18
All three groups in this study achieved cardio-respiratory sta-
bility, as their temperature, heart rate and peripheral oxygen satu-
ration reached a more stable level by the end of the study period. 
There was no significant difference in peripheral oxygen saturation 
between the three groups.
The heart rates of healthy newborn infants can vary from 120 to 
160 bpm, and the average heart rates were within this range in the 
three groups in this study. A stable and slightly higher heart rate was ob-
served in the skin-to-skin group, which in line with the values reported 
by Bancalari et al
19
That study showed the relationship between neo-
natal behavioural states and heart rate variations when newborn infant 
was in an active state with higher heart rates.
20
Our skin-to-skin group 
showed a higher degree of wakefulness than the other two groups.
Overall, the infants' ear temperatures were stable and within the 
normal range in all groups. An infants' temperature is stable when they 
peacefully go through the nine phases of behaviour during skin-to-
skin contact with their mother: crying, relaxation, awakening, activity, 
crawling, rest, familiarisation, sucking and sleep. This leads to early 
optimal self-regulation,
5
which occurred in our study when the infant 
was cared for by their father. It has been suggested that mothers may 
have the ability to modulate their infants' temperature during skin-
to-skin contact 
21
and our study fathers provided the same benefit.
We found that the mean heart rate was significantly higher 
(P = .002) in the skin-to-skin t group than in the cot group. One rea-
son for this finding could have been the higher degree of wakeful-
ness stimulated by sensory cues during skin-to-skin contact.
22