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

2.1 | Randomisation
The day before the elective Caesarean section, 130 prospective 
parents were selected in consecutive order and informed about the 
study, verbally and in writing. The parents were assured that they 
could withdraw from the study at any time, without any impact on 
the care they and their infant received. They were also told that 
their anonymity would be protected. The randomisation was per-
formed using sealed, opaque envelopes that contained information 
about group allocation. The infants were randomised to one of three 
groups. In the cot group, the infants were placed in a cot on their 
side, dressed in a diaper, cotton pyjamas and a cotton hat, with the 
father sitting in a chair near the infant. In the fathers' arms group, the 
infants were placed in a supine position in the fathers' arms, dressed 
in a diaper, cotton pyjamas and cotton cap. In the father-infant skin-
to-skin contact group, the infants were dressed in a cotton diaper, 
and placed skin-to-skin on their fathers' chest in a prone, 30º to 45º 
upright position. The fathers were seated in a comfortable semi-
reclined armchair, and both the father and infant were covered with 
a blanket.
2.2 | Procedures
All newborn infants received the same routine care before the 
start of the intervention. Immediately after the Caesarean birth, 
the umbilical cord was cut and the infant was dried. If required, oral 
suctioning of mucus from the infant's mouth was conducted. The 
Apgar score was measured from one to 10, at one and five minutes 
after birth. The infant was wrapped in two towels and shown to the 
mother, then cared for under a heater for 30 minutes and eventu-
ally transferred to the neonatal unit. The mother, in turn, was trans-
ferred to the post-surgery unit.
All infants were checked 30 minutes after birth by a midwife in 
the presence of the father. Each infant was examined, measured and 
weighed, and their ear temperature was noted. If the infant fulfilled 
the inclusion criteria, they were allocated to the assigned caring 
model according to the randomisation process. All the infants were 
wearing a cotton diaper and covered with two blankets during this 
assessment.
The intervention began 45 minutes after birth, and the in-
fant's physiological variables and their state of wakefulness were 
Keynotes
• This study focused on the wakefulness and physiological 
parameters of full-term infants, who are frequently sep-
arated from their parents after an elective Caesarean.
• The 95 infants were randomised to three groups: cot, 
fathers' arms or skin-to-skin contact with their father 
and at 15-minute intervals, from 45 to 120 minutes after 
birth.
• The skin-to-skin group demonstrated some advantages 
over the other two groups when it came to establishing 
stable physiological parameters and wakefulness.

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