Preliminary Observations on the Behavior of Children Present at the Birth of a Sibling

Abstract

In an effort to shift the focus of hospital birth toward a more family-centered, natural process, an Alternative Birth Center (ABC) was opened in May 1976, at Mount Zion Hospital and Medical Center, San Francisco. Its purpose is to provide a safe, comfortable environment in which women can labor and deliver their infants.1 In order to also bring in families who would have had home births, the setting has been made as much like home as possible. Pregnant women may choose whom to have present at birth. In the ABC, as in other alternative birth settings, many parents are insisting on having their other children present at the birth of a sibling (New York Times, July 12, 1977, p 34; March 17, 1978, section 2, p 4).