I found Emily Oster's books pretty informative (she's an economist by training, she does kind of a meta-analysis of research on various topics of interest). Her books should at least give you a good jumping off point if you want to go deeper into studies on particular topics.

That said - all this stuff is a quagmire. Advice that works well for one kid might not work at all for another kid. Any lay-people you talk to will tell you what worked (or not) for them and their kid(s), and they will tell you with great certainty that they are right. But someone else will tell you the opposite with just as much certainty based on their experience.

We all want to do the "right" thing for our children, but on many topics, there just isn't a one-size-fits-all answer.

By virtue of the fact that you're asking this question, here, I assume that you're up on the basics of newborn care/current SIDS prevention recommendations/etc (ie the stuff about which there is consensus across sources), so please allow me to throw out some generalities that have been helpful for me:

- Check in with your partner! More than you think is necessary. New moms are absolutely slammed with hormones, and the relative balances shift around quite a bit in the first few months. Also, she is probably even more sleep deprived than you, and probably has even more of her ego and self-worth tied to being a good parent. Whenever my wife is breastfeeding, I try to make a point to ask her if she needs anything (snacks/water/phone/whatever). Take care of as much day-to-day household stuff as you can for her. Encourage her to take a break/nap while you watch the kid. If she is having a hard time about anything, try to gently remind her that everything she is going through is perfectly normal, and validate that she's doing a good job.

- Check in with yourself! Your testosterone has probably taken a nose-dive, and the effects can sneak up on you. It's likely that approximately zero people are going to ask how you are holding up, so you need to ask yourself.

- Strive to maintain a calm, stable environment. Sometimes the baby is going to be freaking out, and nothing seems to work. Keep calm. When you find yourself getting frustrated, consider this: there will come a time when you will feel that you would give anything to hold your child as a baby again. You will look back and say that you would gladly be sleep deprived, covered in urine, and deafened by crying just to relive the moment. From birth to age 18 is about 936 weeks, so every 9ish weeks, another 1% of their childhood has passed. I keep this firmly in mind, and try to savor every second.

- No plan survives contact with the baby. Be flexible. The river bank guides the river, but the river shapes the bank.

- Kids internalize a lot about their environment. They'll (mostly) do what they see you do, not what you tell them to do. Want your child to eat healthy? You need to eat healthy. Want your child to spend a lot of time reading? You need to spend a lot of time reading. Want your child to call and visit you when they're an adult? Exercise? Language? *Become the person that you want your child to imitate*.

- Practice empathy. Imagine not knowing anything. The first time a newborn gets gas, it must seem like the worst pain in the world for them. Imagine how confusing and terrifying the world is for them. You are an island of love, stability, and comfort while they figure things out. Don't forget empathy for your partner, and empathy for yourself!

Disclaimer: I'm also a new dad, and it's too early to tell if I know what I'm talking about :)