Newborns separated from their mothers due to a caesarean delivery fared better when they received skin-to-skin contact with their father versus simply being held by the father while clothed or left alone in a cot, a study finds.

Analysis of data on 95 infants showed those who received skin-to-skin contact from fathers had significantly higher heart rates and wakefulness than babies without this contact, according to the report in Acta Paediatrica.

Researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm recruited 95 couples who agreed to having the researchers randomly assign their newborns to one of three different care groups.

When the babies were born, 32 were kept in a cot at some distance from their fathers’ body; 34 were dressed and lying in their fathers’ arms; and 29 were placed skin-to-skin on their fathers’ chests.