The infant, Neaveh Atkins, was born by cesarean section in the US city of Phoenix in October. Her first name is “heaven” spelled backwards.
Neaveh’s father Randy, a professional photographer, was in the delivery room beside his wife Alicia and the medical team performing the surgery.
“The doctor called me over and said, ‘Hey, she’s grabbing my finger.’ So I ran over there and just grabbed the shot and I was just in awe looking at it. It was such an amazing picture,” Mr Atkins told reporters.
He added that he was nervous about missing the fleeting moment as he hurried to snap a picture.
“It was such an amazing photo. [Hospital staff] had possibly heard of it happening but they had never seen a photo of it,” said Neveah’s mother Alicia.
The picture is only emerging now because the Atkins kept it under wraps for weeks.
At first the couple had planned only to share the photo with family and friends, but since they posted it publicly on Facebook a week ago it has had tens of thousands of views and likes.
“We didn’t think we were going to get such positive feedback. We thought we would get more negative ‘that’s disgusting...’” Alicia said. “[Instead] everybody just thought it was the best thing in the world.”