autism and birth delivery methods

[Jamie's dad]

Our Jamie (now 7) is in the autistic spectrum. He has a 'statement' describing his condition as Aspberger's Syndrome - not that that makes any difference to us - in the autistic spectrum sums it up well enough.

 

Jamie attends a normal school with learning support assistants, and is close to normal in terms of educational attainment - so far. He has a very good tape recorder like memory. His verbal skills are limited. His social skills are limited - or should I say unusual. He is very lively and difficult to keep under control.

 

Anyway - to get to my question. Jamie was delivered by suction on his head from a ventouse. He arrived with a large fluid-filled swelling on the side of his head, which took some weeks to subside. We have always suspected that this may have something to do with his autism, though the doctor told us the brain was sufficiently protected by the cranial sac, and did not warn us of any risk.

 

Does anybody know of any proper research (as opposed to speculation) that connects autism to birth deliery methods? especially ventouse delivery

 

We read today (April 11th in the Daily Mail) an article about Dr Robin Pauc, who mentions a connection. And I can find some gossip via Google. We'd like to know the current state-of-the-art medical concensus.

 

Jamie's dad

[Elanor]

I've often suspected a connection between autism and traumatic birth - not least because my son's rather violent arrival left him with a peanut shaped head (which became normal after a few days). I had also read arguments of links between forceps delivery and violent behaviour in later life.

 

However, I read a book last year (and I've been trying to remember which, but I can't) which was recently published - and in this, it said that there has been some research which showed no connection between birth trauma and autism. Sorry I can't be more helpful - hope someone else has something more useful to add.

 

Elanor

[darky]

well if its any help, both my younger 2 dx with asd's were born perfectly normaly, no pain relief very quick and easy births. my eldest son, normal traits however was born having shown distress, got stuck in the birth canal, cord wrapped round and was delivered by forceps. co-incendently, the younger two were breast fed and my eldest was not, go figure!

[LizK]

ASD is apparently supposed to be more common in first born children. As first borns are more likely to be born by instrumental delivery or Em CS than subsequent children there could be an indirect link. Like everything with autism I don't think there is just one causative factor. I think you have a person with a genetic susceptibility of varying degrees and then something internal or external triggers the autism, the problem being the trigger is different for different people which must make research into that more much tricky

 

Lx

[Lynden]

I think there was a similar thread posted not so long ago and it didn't seem conclusive in any way. I know for me personally I had an elective section so his birth was really untraumatic - it was my NT daughter who had the difficult birth (ended with emergency section)

 

Lynne

[Bullet]

My oldest son (being assessed for ASD with results of findings being told to us later this week) was induced after being two weeks overdue, but the birth was far easier than I had been led to believe and I certainly wouldn't call it traumatic.

Edited April 11, 2006 by Bullet

[Jamie's dad]

Thanks for the contributions.

 

I realise we can't reach a conclusion from our own experiences. I am sure most autisitic people had normal births. And equally sure most aggressive deliveries by forceps or ventouse deliver children without autism.

 

The question is rather whether research into a large sample has ever shown (in a statistically significant sense), that forced delivery methods have a tendency to trigger autism.

 

If you Google on Autism + Ventouse, you can find a web site that mentions research which made a connection, but I couldn't see any reference to follow up, and I think the research was very old, since I think it was by Tinbergen - who was quoted in connection with Lorenz - a prehistoric psychologist if I remember correctly.

 

P.S. my son was the 2nd born.

[jen]

When I was talking to my psychatrist she told me that many mothers with children with ASD had problems in the pregnancy or the child got distressed pre birth or there was bleeding during the pregnancy.

 

 

I had bleeding during my pregancy and my child was distress for 6 hours the week before he was born. However, we had a home birth with no problems.

 

 

Jen

[Flora]

Both my boys were born by planned c section and had no problems at birth. Susie, my only NT child was born by emergency c section, distressed, needed intubating to start breathing and was in special care for 24 hours because she had inhaled meconium. It was amazing she wasn't brain damaged. So my personal experience does not support the theory that traumatic birth causes autism.

 

Lauren

[Guest hallyscomet]

My Son with ASD was posterior position so they did a rotation it was a 20 hour labour then he was forcep delivered as he went into distress. I always believe they should have pushed me to have a C Section; they asked me if I would and I said no because during the Pregnancy I was in a car accident. Injuries- Right leg fibula broken, huge laceration needing 101 stitches under local anaesthetic because I was pregnant my R foot crushed broken in 9 places. The trauma of all these things and the injections I had, had me worrying.

 

Physically on the refusal of a c section; I felt I just couldnt cope with a C section after all of this, more stitches, but it turned out I ended up with more stitches than I would have had with a C section. I hadn't slept for 48 hours because the labour started in the evening just before I was about to retire and my boy was born the following evening just after 6pm.

 

I fell asleep for 3 hours as soon as he was born I collapsed and wasnt able to hug him straight away; so I felt bad that he missed that bonding from the word go. However when I woke, I saw this beautiful little bub with big eyes shining at me, and he knew I was mum will never forget that moment. He was the most adorable looking baby I had ever seen, biased

 

My NT daughter was 2 weeks overdue and induced, this was a problem free birth within 3 hours no meds, no time This always brings back the beautiful moment of holding them in your arms for the first time and she was the most beautiful baby girl I had ever seen biased again

 

I have always had this anger inside me, blaming the doctor for not pushing me to have a C section, as I feel the forceps and rotation were to blame, but doctors and specialists since have all said, that there is no way this could have caused my sons condition nor could the car accident, as Autism is a genetic condition.

 

We parents all agree that the MMR makes it worse if given the 3 shots together, I am pushing for the injections to be administered separately over a period of time. From my research and cries for help. I would fight this to the end. Watching how it affected my boy second time around with the Booster at age 15

 

But there are still many ????????

 

H.

Edited April 12, 2006 by hallyscomet

[Stephanie]

Hmm the vonteuse failed on mine (it came off his head and stuck to my thigh making it non sterile) they then used forceps - poor kid! I would be interested to hear of any research.

 

When I was 36 weeks pregnant I had a routine scan and the sonographer checked his brain and they said that my son had too much fluid in the ventricular horns in his brain but it would go down, I had another scan at 38 weeks and they just said everything was fine. I often wonder whether that was something to do with it and the hospital were glossing over something.

 

Who knows?? Would be interested to see any feedback on this though, although if it did come back as evidence I would blame myself for not trying harder to give birth and them having to resort to forceps.

[call me jaded]

Can I point you in the direction of my favourite search engine PubMed?

 

I typed autism birth trauma, found something relevant and then clicked on related articles.

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.f...rom_uid=7416112

 

Happy reading!

[DaisyProudfoot]

My AS son is a twin delivered by caesarian 4 minutes later than his sister who is NT

 

My first-born is NT - normal delivery

 

My second-born is dyspraxic with some AS traits - normal delivery

 

None of them were oxygen deprived at birth

[Melinda]

My identical twin boys are both ASD. The first was born quickly but "easily", the second caused quite a few difficulties and ending up having a ventouse delivery. I don't think the ventouse was relevent to his autism as there are obviously some genetics ar work.

 

However, I do strongly believe that it is a genetic tendancy triggered by something or somethings. I am really interested in pregnancy/birth issues surrounding autism because of the higher incidence in twins. I have often wondered if either scanning (multiple births have more scans as a rule, I lost count!) or epidurals (twin mums are often advised to have an epidural in case of complications) have an impact.

 

 

Melinda

[niki]

i have always wondered wether it could be a factor. My son was distressed and passed a poo during labour they tried assisted birth with ventouse which failed after two attempts and was finally born by assistance with forceps, the midwife warned me his head would be mishappen but what his head actually looked like totally freaked me out. He had to be intubated before he could breathe and i was warned he would probably be quite "angry" for a day or two because of the tauma to his head but nothing could be furthur from the truth, he was dozy and wouldnt feed very much.

 

Also my brother (suspected ASD) was stuck in the birth canal.

[Tez]

A was born by forceps after being stuck for some hours and in distress. When he was dx'd the Consultant did say that there is often a connection with birth trauma but in A's case thought this wasn't relevant because it was obvious from my presentation and anacedotyl family tales that it was genetic.

 

The opinion of his current consultant is that it probably does have a genetic connection in A's case but birth trauma and adverse reactions to injections not just MMR probably heightened his sensory problems.

[LizK]

Who knows?? Would be interested to see any feedback on this though, although if it did come back as evidence I would blame myself for not trying harder to give birth and them having to resort to forceps.

 

Though the link between birth trauma and ASD coouldn't be an association not a cause i.e. whatever lead to the distress or situation requiring an instrumental delivery might be the causative factor. This is one of the theories about the cause of neurodevelopmental conditions in children, not ASD specfically but other conditions like cerebral palsy too. It is postulated that the problem occurs in utero (exposure to virus? lack of oxygen? unknown?) and the result of the damage to the brain means that the baby is less likely to 'know' how to be born properly so may come early or very late, not be positioned correctly, more prone to fetal distress and thus more likely to experience problems during delivery. As I say it's only a theory.

 

Liz x

[Jamie's dad]

Thanks to Jaded, I followed some of the references given

=================================================

I typed autism birth trauma, found something relevant and then clicked on related articles.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.f...rom_uid=7416112

=================================================

This extract from one set of conclusions sums up what I found

 

"The results of this study support previous findings suggesting a consistent association of unfavorable events in pregnancy, delivery, and the neonatal phase and the pervasive developmental disorders. However, interpretation of the meaningfulness of these results is difficult, as the specific complications that carried the highest risk of autism .... represented various forms of pathologic processes with no presently apparent unifying feature. Additional studies are needed..."

 

I notice two things which are worth reporting to y'all

 

1) research is typically based on a smallish sample of autistic children and includes every variety of birth trauma. More convincing research would use a very large sample of one specific delivery method (e.g. ventouse), and look for a statistically significant higher incidence of autism in that sample.

 

2) there is strong complicating factor. Sometimes the delivery is forced BECAUSE the baby has already been distressed in the womb, perhaps suffering from a reduced blood supply. So what we think is the effect of the delivery method may in fact be the effect of the distress beforehand.

[noogsy]

i dont want to fogg up the waters.but i have two children with asd and well i have always comforted myself that asd and adhd are hereditary i feel in my case.my children were born normaly.i have i think asd(undiagnosed)so has my father(undiagnosed but has serious issues...lol...nutter)when i found out about louis everything started to make sense for my family.it all just feel ito place.but i think all parents can be furious and upset and want answers or somthing to blame....MMR..or birth trauma..but sometime we are just who we are...not perfect but amazing beautiful people....love noogsy

[Deblegs]

I was born with Oxygen Deprivation. The umbilical cord was around my neck. I was born blue and my finger and toe nails were blue gor a fortnight.

I should have been given oxygen.

 

This was the cause of my autism.

 

From Debbie