title: Parents' skin to skin holding of small premature infants: differences between fathers and mothers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Both mothers and fathers should achieve early skin to skin holding of their small premature infants, despite the infants' need for breathing equipment, including respirator. If the mother needs to wait to hold her newborn due to her medical condition, this is not reason enough for the father also to wait.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Do fathers wait significantly longer post delivery to hold their small premature infants skin to skin (kangaroo) than mothers do?
  
  
  METHODS
  Registration-schedule, existing sources of data, and interviews were used. FINDING/CONCLUSION: The time from birth (hours) until fathers held their small premature infants skin to skin was significantly different (p = 0.0004) compared to mothers. Fathers held their infants later than did mothers, despite the fact that fathers saw their infants before the mothers did. Compared to the mothers the average waiting time before fathers first held their infants skin to skin showed a difference of 120.9% (difference of the median).
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, National Hospital, University of Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gloppestad
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003710:Demography; D005219:Father-Child Relations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009769:Object Attachment; D012879:Skin Physiological Phenomena; D013997:Time Factors; D014110:Touch