The Rock claps back against skin-to-skin shame

Mamas know skin-to-skin contact is incredibly important after a baby is born, and many dads do too, but the benefits of close post-birth contact from both parents isn’t something commonly talked about outside of maternity wards and birthing centers.

Luckily, some celebrity dads are educating the world, one shirtless selfie at a time.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson recently posted a shirtless selfie taken shortly after his new baby daughter, Tia, was born, and while many hearts (including some at Motherly) were melted by the pic and accompanying caption, some social media commenters were puzzled. For those who don’t know about skin-to-skin contact and why it’s so important, it looked as though The Rock just ripped off his shirt at an inappropriate time.

One Twitter user summed it up in a two-line joke:

Nurse: would you like to hold your new baby?

@TheRock: hold on, let me take my shirt off.

The Rock quickly set things straight online, responding to tweet to let the whole world know that there’s actually no more appropriate time for a man to go shirtless than when he’s holding his newborn.

“[G]ood one!” he wrote, “Buuuuut one day when you have babies Allison you’ll understand the power of skin to skin.”

@atupchurch good one! Buuuuut one day when you have babies Allison you’ll understand the power of skin to skin

— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock)
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The Rock is so right about the power of so-called kangaroo care. It keeps babies warm, builds bonds, and research suggests skin-to-skin contact can even help kids do better in school later in life. Talk about powerful.

It’s definitely got nothing to do with dads showing off, as The Rock’s partner proved. Just days after he posted his initial shirtless selfie, The Rock’s girlfriend, Lauren Hashian, posted her own, which showed that The Rock was indeed fully clothed before it was his turn to hold Tia.

The Rock isn’t the only celebrity dad to spark conversation about skin-to-skin in recent days. NFL Giants running back Saquon Barkley posted a skin-to-skin pic of a sweet moment with his newborn daughter, Jada. This celebrity dad didn’t have to defend himself in the comments, because an expert did it for him.

“Congrats you are blessed! This Labor nurse loves seeing daddies doing skin to skin with their babies. Much ❤️ to you all ! Let’s go Giants!” one fan wrote.

saquon

The Rock and Barkley have both appeared shirtless on magazine covers, but in our eyes, these pics are even better.

You might also like:

• The Rock is a father again—and writes emotionally about the strength of women
• It’s science: Skin-to-skin time benefits your baby—even 20 years later
• This dad’s bottle-feeding hack is genius—and hilarious