Mehl L E, Brendsel C, Peterson G H
J Sex Marital Ther. 1977 Winter;3(4):274-9. doi: 10.1080/00926237708402995.
The sexual attitudes and beliefs of 20 children who have been present at the labor and delivery of sibs and have observed the birth process are compared with 20 children who have not been present at delivery. The ages of these children ranged from 2 years to 14 years. Several of these children were observed at the actual delivery where naturalistic observations of delivery were carried out. Naturalistic observations of these processes were also carried out as well as observations of play of children who had witnessed the delivery with children who had not. The attitudes of the parents of children present at delivery were characterized and consisted of a feeling that birth was a normal family event of a positive nature that should involve other children of the family. Their children tended to have very accurate notions regarding the proverbial "Where do babies come from?" question and tended to view the birth in a positive, happy manner. Children not present found the idea of birth puzzling or inconceivable and did not seem to understand the concept or be able to relate it to their family. They tended to develop theories about birth that were inaccurate and sometimes fantastic, much as those described earlier by Freud. The results seem to suggest that children's presence at delivery permits an open attitude toward birth as a normal process in families in which this ideology is held and for girls aids in the development of their self-image as women. Preliminary data suggests less sibling rivalry among the children present at the delivery. These results are discussed in regard to current American birth practices.
将20名曾目睹兄弟姐妹分娩过程并观察了出生过程的儿童的性态度和观念，与20名未目睹分娩过程的儿童进行了比较。这些儿童的年龄在2岁至14岁之间。其中一些儿童在实际分娩时被观察，在那里对分娩进行了自然观察。还对这些过程进行了自然观察，以及对目睹分娩的儿童与未目睹分娩的儿童的玩耍情况进行了观察。目睹分娩的儿童的父母的态度具有这样的特点，即他们觉得分娩是一件正常的、积极的家庭事件，应该让家庭中的其他孩子参与。他们的孩子对于众所周知的“婴儿从哪里来？”这个问题往往有非常准确的概念，并且倾向于以积极、愉快的方式看待分娩。未目睹分娩的儿童觉得分娩的概念令人困惑或难以想象，似乎不理解这个概念，也无法将其与自己的家庭联系起来。他们倾向于形成关于分娩的不准确且有时很荒诞的理论，就像弗洛伊德之前所描述的那样。结果似乎表明，儿童目睹分娩有助于在秉持这种观念的家庭中形成对分娩这一正常过程的开放态度，对女孩而言，有助于她们形成作为女性的自我形象。初步数据表明，目睹分娩的儿童之间的手足竞争较少。结合当前美国的分娩习俗对这些结果进行了讨论。
