My son is autistic, very clingy to mummy and doesn't like loud noises but we still had him around for his baby brother's HB. I would never have taken him with us for a hospital birth though. We tried to prepare him for the birth by watching youtube clips and reading "Hello Baby". I would also "make the noise mummy makes when the baby comes" to prepare him. He couldn't comprehend what was actually going to happen as his receptive language skills are poor so we couldn't explain it for him.

He was great on the day. He gave me little cuddles during early contractions- a soft arm around my neck when I bent over and made noise Then as labour ramped up my H put him to bed for his day sleep. When he woke up things were getting much more to the business end and he didn't want to come into the birth room. Our student midwife was able to bring him in for a bit but he mostly preferred to play with playdough in the kitchen. My aunty was coming to be his carer but she missed the birth and my son was calm just playing by himself anyway. He came in and had a quick look after his brother was born but he spent the following couple of hours skulking around trying to be invisable. After a while he started to get distressed by so many people so we asked everyone to wrap it up and go then he had a little cuddle time with me and baby in bed and went to bed for the night. The following days were great and he was calm and relaxed, giving baby kisses and just getting on with daily life as usual.

When I was 13 I attended the HB of my little sister and it was awesome. Set me up for life to be able to negate all the negative, scare stories/images about birth in the media. It was one of the biggest blessings my mum ever gave me