Abstract
Siblings have been included at births in the Mt. Zion ABC since its opening in 1976. During the first 3 years 88 families (14%) included siblings at their birth. 71 families participated in our original study of behavior at birth. The reasons most frequently stated by these families for including siblings were a desire to prevent sibling rivalry and to promote attachment. In order to examine these issues a semi-structured interview utilizing a questionaire designed to elicit reports of behavior changes was conducted with 18 families who had had 22 children present at the birth of a sibling 1 to 4 years previously. Age and sex of the children at the time of the birth are presented in the Table.
All families reported overt sibling rivalry with 3 noting jealousy during the new sibling's infancy and 17 noting jealousy as the new infant began to walk and snatch toys. Of the 8 children who were ≤ 3 years old at the time of the sibling birth, all had symptoms which the parents felt were related to the new infant or to presence at birth. Despite some behavior changes and obvious signs of sibling rivalry, parents uniformly felt that presence at birth had increased sibling attachment and that they would include a sibling again.
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Iryin, N., Leonard, C., Clyman, R. et al. 60 FOLLOW UP OF SIBLINGS PRESENT AT BIRTH IN AN ALTERNATIVE BIRTH CENTER (ABC). Pediatr Res 15 (Suppl 4), 449 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198104001-00069
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198104001-00069