2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Experience of mothers whose child participated in birth of his or her sibling and influence of attending birth on child : Follow-up Survey after 13 years

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23660075
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Lifelong developmental nursing
Research Institution	Fukui Prefectural University
Principal Investigator	GESSO Atsuko 福井県立大学, 看護福祉学部, 講師 (00170720)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2013
Keywords	家族立会出産 / 縦断的継続研究 / 母親 / 子ども / 記憶 / 生活体験 / 家族関係
Research Abstract	Mothers observed their children's speech and behavior daily and confirmed their positive bonding with their sibling. Their bonding was considered originated in the experience of attending birth. Mothers also confirmed that their children, who were 3 years old or older at the time of birth attendance (members), retained memory of the experience. All mothers valued the experience of birth with their children. They also expressed that the experience became a basis of discussion with their children regarding sex, marriage, and that the experience involving all family members strengthened family ties. Members remembered happenings before and after the birth in fragments. Their memories were physical observations such as weight of a baby and hardness of the navel,and feelings such as joy and willingness of taking care of his/her sibling. Birth attendance experience deepened the member's intellectual understanding of events related to child birth integrated with sex education at school.