How to Explain Childbirth to a 7-year-old

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Some subjects can be awkward and hard to explain to a 7-year-old like childbirth, but there are always some tips that can help make an awkward situation better.

So, how do you explain childbirth to a 7-year-old? A great way to explain childbirth to a 7-year-old is to answer the question clearly. Saying something like, “Mommy goes to the hospital and the doctor helps bring the baby out of mommy’s tummy” is a great way to introduce this topic and see how much your child is ready to learn.

I have totally been in the situation where your child starts asking questions that you really aren’t ready to answer and, if we are completely honest, have no idea how to answer.

I have way too many nieces and nephews to have avoided those conversations growing up. So I’ve done some research and found out what other parents have said helps them.

What Do I Tell My 7-Year-Old When They Ask How Babies are Born?

Children are curious and they want to know what the world is like. Many of them play with baby dolls and love seeing other little kids, especially babies.

But this curiosity in children can be hard to keep up with when your 7-year-old finally starts to wonder where babies come from and how they get out of women’s stomachs.

I’ve done a lot of research on this and I have come up with some great tips that I think are really useful. There really is no right or wrong way to teach your 7-year-old where babies come from, even though it may seem daunting.

The tips below are not set in stone and are totally there for individual interpretation. If you like one idea but hate another choose what works best for your family.

In the end, whatever way you feel is best to talk to your 7-year-olds about how babies are born or any other sensitive topic is what you should do.

Hopefully, these tips will help make it easier to teach your 7-year-olds about sensitive topics like how babies are born.

Tip Number 1

If your 7-year-old child is mature enough to ask the question they are probably mature enough to hear the answer to the question.

As parents or guardians, I think there is this line that we see that we don’t want to cross when it comes to introducing our children to new and sometimes adult topics.

We really don’t want them to lose their innocence or tell them something they aren’t prepared for.

The biggest thing to remember when it comes to kids is that they normally will take the information they need and the rest will go over their heads.

So, although you should probably not go crazy in your explanation, it is fine to explain what happens reasonably.

When a child asks mature questions they are normally ready for the mature answer. Kids are great and they know how much they can handle.

Worst-case scenario typically is that you say too much and your kid says, “eww gross!” and moves on their way.

I read a lot of blogs from parents and most of them agreed that it is better to answer your kid’s questions as far as they want the answers.

Kids are smart and if they don’t get the answers they want from you they will probably just ask others, so it’s normally better to answer them yourself so you know where they are getting the information.

Tip Number 2

A great way to answer your 7-year-old if you really don’t know what to say is to use visual aids like videos.

There are some great videos out there that explain childbirth without any graphic images, and if you feel comfortable with it there are also live childbirth videos.

I’m not sure how I feel about the whole live birth videos, but a lot of people use them and find them effective.

Baby Center makes an animated childbirth video that people really love, but if you have a curious child you might have to explain it in more detail. The video is on YouTube and if you want to pre-screen it you can watch it here.

You should pre-screen ALL videos before showing them to your 7-year-old.

This video seems to be very resourceful and I’m pretty sure if I was still 7, I would understand and be satisfied with the answers that watching this video gives. It goes through the whole labor and delivery process and is easy to understand.

There are some other great animated videos that are awesome and come very highly suggested by others. So it’s great to look around and watch some of the content that they have out there.

If you are into the live video showings there are always some online, but you really should screen them though because we don’t want to scar our children with something they are not prepared to see yet.

Another great way to help kids understand childbirth without getting to graphic is to show them the live births of animals.

Not only is it less graphic to watch puppies or kittens being born but it also has a side of cuteness because they are animals and it is less awkward.

Watching this videos can also help 7-year-olds see that there need to be other people there to help moms have their babies.

Tip Number 3

Keep it simple. One of the best ways to explain any sensitive subject to 7-year-old kids is to keep it simple. When a child asks a specific question answer that question and then wait to give them more information.

Your son or daughter will let you know if they are still curious and need more of an explanation. They will continue to ask questions or they may just look at you baffled, but either way, they will get their point across that they still have questions.

A good rule of thumb is that if your child hasn’t asked about it don’t force it. So if they ask how babies get out of the stomach but not how they get in the stomach it may mean that they aren’t ready to learn the latter.

That being said, if you as a parent feel the need to discuss a certain topic with your kid then do it. They will let you know if they aren’t interested and for 7-year-olds if they aren’t ready to hear it then they probably will just stop listening.

Take into account that everything I am saying is based on the opinions of other parents, myself, and websites, so take what you like and apply it and leave what you don’t like.

Tip Number 4

Being prepared is one of the greatest tools parents have in their arsenal. All kids are curious and are going to be curious throughout all time. I personally think that the curiosity of children will never go away.

So, if we as parents prepare in advance for sticky questions like, “How are babies born?” then we will have a much easier time answering those questions in the future.

They say practice makes perfect so it is okay to practice these scenarios with your significant other or family and friends. It may be a little awkward at first, but in the end, it will probably be a great session of laughs and just the practice that is needed to help you prepare.

I heard some really great advice once that if you start explaining things from childbirth explaining childbirth won’t be so weird. I think this is a wise thought.

If we are preparing our 7-year-olds from the time they are born that day when they finally start asking some hard questions those questions won’t seem hard because both you and you child have a good background.

Some ways of doing this are by teaching your kids from a young age-

That babies grow in a mom’s stomach
That after 9 months in a mom’s tummy babies need to be brought out into the world
The private parts of both genders
What a baby is
What a doctor is

Obviously, this is a short list of things that can start being taught and every parent will have to decide how, when, what, and how much to tell their kids, but if you start explaining the basics early it really will make explaining the complicated stuff a lot easier.

Tip Number 5

If you want to start preparing your kids before they reach 7 and if you want to prepare/explain things to your current 7-year-olds visual aids are often super helpful.

I love books and love to read, so the idea of being able to talk about these uncomfortable topics with my kids via books makes me SO happy.

There are some really great books out there that are very helpful in showing the process of child development and birth.

A really great book to read is When You Were Inside Mommy’s Tummy by Joanna Cole. This cute and informative book is described as,

“Clear inviting text and lively illustrations, introduce young children to the concepts of pregnancy and childbirth–from the time they begin as one tiny cell to the joyful moment when their parents welcome them into the world.”
Google books

What a perfect way to describe how babies are brought into the world to children and to 7-year-olds. There are some other great books out there that help children learn more about this topic.

What to Expect When Mommy’s Having a Baby, by Heidi Murkoff is an adorable book! It uses the animated character of a dog named Angus to help explain to children what to expect when mommy’s having a baby. Sometimes I think I’m funny.

Another great book is You Were Born on Your Very First Birthday, by Linda Walvoord Girard this is a classic and beautiful book that can be a very helpful tool in helping your child understand the beauty of bringing new life to the earth.

This description of a tiny baby and how it develops and prepares to come into the world is insightful and useful. There are so many great books that offer help.

Another great book for explaining childbirth to kids is A Child Is Born by Lennart Nilsson and Lars Hamberger. It takes a more scientific look into pregnancy and childbirth that may help to answer extra questions that your 7-year-old has.

Because it is a little bit more scientific you might want to look through the photos and choose which ones you want to share with your child and which ones you think should be saved until they are a bit older.

While books are a great way to show a visual aid they are not the only way to visually help your 7-year-old understand childbirth. This great mom responded to a prompt on babycenter.com and said,

“I happened to be preparing dinner when my son asked how the baby would come out of me. I was seasoning a raw chicken, and I used it to illustrate how the baby would be in the chicken’s tummy and come out of the opening in the bottom.”
— A BabyCenter Member

I thought this was really creative and a great way to make the best out of a hard and awkward situation. It is sometimes great visual aids that help our 7-year-olds finally understand. This mom finished her statement by saying,

“The light came on, and he finally seemed to understand. I just hope I didn’t ruin chicken for him for the rest of his life!”
—A BabyCenter Member

Talk about using your resources! This mom is awesome!

Tip Number 6

This tip is for women who are pregnant and need help explaining to their 7-year-old how childbirth works, what it is, and how it happens. A great way to help your 7-year-old understand is to let them experience your pregnancy with you.

If you allow your 7-year-old to come with you to your doctor appointments and let them hear the babies heartbeat, see it growing inside you and be around you as you and your doctor talk about the baby your 7-year-old will be able to learn and grow along with your pregnancy.

If your 7-year-old likes to feel the baby kick and move, then you can let them and have conversations about the baby as you do. This is a cool way to help your 7-year-old understand childbirth and also help them develop a relationship with the new baby.

Doing this could also be a great way to help strengthen your relationship with your 7-year-old as well. New babies and pregnancies can help to create really special bonds.

Tip Number 7

Using the proper terms for things helps. It may seem awkward to us as adults to try an explain childbirth to our children with the proper terms but to kids, those words don’t have a lot of meaning.

So, when we use proper terms we as parents get to decide how, when, and why our kids are learning these words and what the meaning of them truly is.

It is great to be able to talk to your child and have them understand what you are saying.

No one would love to pick their kids up from school and find out that someone had taught them these words but not given them the important meaning that they deserve and need.

If we use proper terms to explain things like childbirth to our children and 7-year-olds both they are we can have a great piece of mind added to that.

It is important that once you have explained this information with your kids to ask them not to talk about it with their friends because their friend’s parents deserve to explain it to them. But if they want to try explaining it to someone they can explain it to you.

This can help solve a lot of problems. It helps kids who aren’t ready for this information to not have to hear it prematurely, but it also can give your child an avenue to talk what they learned through so that they can understand it better.

Tip Number 8 (Final Tip…I Promise)

The best tip I think I can leave you with is to always end one of these conversations with your 7-year-old by telling your child that if they have any more questions or if they need clarification they can always come as you.

Keeping this window of communication open between children and their parents is crucial and helpful as these 7-year-olds keep developing and running into harder and harder questions.

Kids always need to feel safe and comfortable coming to parents with questions and concerns, and by offering a place for them to come to continually will help tremendously.

Seven-year-old kids are great! Their questions are great, their comments are great, and their personalities are awesome.

It may be awkward trying to explain how babies get out of their moms, but just enjoy the conversation because your child is only going to be 7 once.