Don't be afraid to cuddle them newborns! Study finds babies soothed just as much by dads

It was a fluke of our daughter's birth that I got to hold our little newborn earlier and longer than my wife did - blame it on the pre-eclampsia and the prematurity. Those first encounters with the baby were somewhat intimidating, with her hooked up to all those tubes and wires. But despite the difficulties she had to go through to get into this world, I thought she was a remarkably calm baby to hold and was easily comforted. Desiree didn't get to hold the baby until the next day, so I was hoping that somehow a parental bond was being formed until she could recover enough to get to the NICU.

Turns out, I may have been helping more than I thought. A new study out of Sweden sheds some light of the importance of the father's touch when the mother is not around. (Full disclosure - the study focused on skin-to-skin contact. In my case, I was wearing a shirt. It's not like I was gonna go traipsing around the NICU like Tarzan when I held my baby.)

Anyway, back to the study. The authors studied 29 babies born by C-sections. The babies spent a brief amount of time with their mothers, then the next two hours with their dads. 14 of the fathers were asked to care for their babies on their chest, skin-to-skin. The others comforted their babies as they lay on a cot next to them.

The researchers found that the babies who were held by their dads cried less, settled down for naps earlier and were better prepared to breastfeed when their mothers returned than the babies placed in the cots were.

You can read more about the study on WebMD and Science Daily.