Embracing New Beginnings: Fathers' Lived Experiences of Infant Skin-to-Skin Contact During Cesarean Section

Xian Liu and Sheilla M Trajera
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Xian Liu: Graduate School, University of St. La Salle, Bacolod City 6100, Shenzhen Baoan Women's and Children's Hospital
Sheilla M Trajera: Graduate School Program Chair for Education and Nursing, Faculty for BSN, MN, and PhD Programs, University of St. La Salle, Bacolod City 6100, Philippines

Technium Social Sciences Journal, 2026, vol. 88, issue 1, 130-143

Abstract: Immediate father–infant skin-to-skin contact (SSC) during cesarean section may provide fathers with a meaningful role when maternal contact is temporarily delayed. Nevertheless, fathers' subjective experiences in the operating-room setting remain underexplored. This study explored the lived experiences of fathers who engaged in immediate SSC with their newborns during cesarean birth. A descriptive phenomenological design was used. Fifteen fathers in a tertiary hospital in Shenzhen, China, participated in semi-structured interviews within 12 hours of SSC. We analyzed data using Colaizzi's seven-step method, with member checking, reflexivity, peer review, and an audit trail to support trustworthiness. Five themes emerged: a varied preoperative emotional journey, sensory experiences triggering paternal identity, evaluating hospital procedural experience, social embedding of paternal participation, and temporal extension. Together, these themes informed the Cesarean Attachment Context Model. Father–infant SSC was experienced as more than physical contact; it was an emotionally dynamic, sensory, relational, procedurally mediated, socially embedded, and temporally extended transition into fatherhood.

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tec:journl:ojs:13831

DOI: 10.47577/tssj.v88i1.13831

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