Holding your partner's hands can help ease their pain during childbirth, new study finds.
Researcher explain why the comforting touch can be beneficial during an agonising period, the Daily Mail reported.
Colorado University, Boulder researchers found that it can "communicate empathy, and reduce the sensation of pain", the report revealed.
Their investigation found that women experienced milder pain from heat experiments when their other half was in the room holding their hands.
The more empathy the partner showed to their women, the more relief the women experienced from holding hands.
Pavel Goldstein, a neuroscience researcher at CU Boulder, wanted to learn more about the sensation and its impact after his wife asked him to hold her hand in the delivery giving birth to their daughter. He wanted to know of it really can make a difference.
The effects of touch he believes can be powerful. "We have such a problem around painkillers, so it's very important today to find [other] methods for pain relief," Goldstein told the Daily Mail.
Adding, "I think about it like intelligence and muscle. When you want to do something really well, you want to practice the movement and skill. I think about this with touch and empathy."
He further went on to explains: "I think touch is generally a good tool for connecting people - that doesn’t mean you need to touch everyone in the streets - but I think that touching between friends or romantic partners is very powerful."
