ASD/ADHD and difficult birth/labour connection?

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Is there any connection with this? Thoughts?

Thanks

Nope . I have two children with autism and adhd and no birth problems at all.

@Fidgety31 ok thank you x

It is a question that they ask when the child is being assessed. Well I was and I asked why. They said they were gathering information to see if there were any common factors.
I was asked if anything occurred during my pregnancy to stress me and how was the birth.
No stress but ventouse birth due to heart rate dropping.

@NiceTwin interesting... sorry to hear you had difficult birth..

I think it's highly likely to be genetic as most things are.However Asd and add weren't really recognised a decade ago so not had chance for this to be picked up yet.

I ask about birth complications when assessing for autism, this is mainly to rule out other difficulties. For example, if a child had been deprived of oxygen at birth could this have led to undiagnosed cerebral palsy or neurological difficulties which could be presenting as autism?

Interesting. DD is being assessed for autism/ADHD at the moment. No one has asked about her birth or my pregnancy. Her birth was drama free, although induced. But I had surgery under GA whilst pregnant, also had oligohydramnios and had a fairly complex, consultant lead pregnancy.

Not in our family. In our family it is genetic, dh has asd, ds does, 3 other kids on dhs side of the family have been diagnosed also. Presumably other adults in his family have it too but we're just never diagnosed.

I have autism and apparently I literally fell out in the ambulance (early 80s), mum said she didn't even realise I was out.

I've heard there is a link with pre term birth but I'm not sure how true that is.

There's definitely a strong link between ADD/ADHD and premature birth - wouldn't lots of premature births be difficult/ emergency induced?

I had a difficult ventouse delivery with my DD who is on the spectrum. My two other elective c section children are NT

My DS1 and myself almost died during the EMCS that was necessary for him to be born after he suffered life threatening complications n labour.His Apgar at birth was 1 and he had to be intubated to get him breathing.He appeared to have fully recovered when it was time to go home 14 days later.This was 1969.
I am not going to give full details as this could ''out''. me. He is now living away from home, his own choice, he has often been described as ''odd'' I worry about him constantly.If he was a child now there would be certainly questions about autism and ADHD.
His younger brother, also a traumatic birth , EMCS again for same reasons, Apgar 3 ,at birth is exactly the opposite in character very sociable and outgoing.

Asd and adhd can look similar to other behavioural issues. My adopted dd has adhd as well as attachment disorder, both manifest themselves in similar ways. My friend had to go into hospital when her ds was very young, for a prolonged period of time, and this resulted in him struggling with attachment. He was initially diagnosed with adhd but that turned out to be incorrect.

Dd with ASD was born at 40 weeks, my labour was 12 hours, birth was in water and we were home in bed the same day.

There seems to be a lot of generalisations on this thread. ASD and ADHD are separate disorders. Yes there is overlap with presentation and people can have a diagnosis of both, but they aren’t the same thing.

ADD (or inattentive ADHD) could just present as lack of concentration at school. It wouldn’t affect their social skills at all.

Dyspraxia can also go-exist with the above and Dyslexia can also co exist with Dyspraxia, but they aren’t mentioned.

There can be a relationship between birth trauma / need for resuscitation and also with hypoglycaemia and ADHD / ASC but could only be proven if there was a severe problem.

By severe problem I mean significant birth trauma and need for special Care.

Agree no point in treating as if ASD and ADHD are the same disorder - there does seem to be clear info about this for ADHD. And it seems that even relatively late and healthy premature babies have higher risk for ADHD - most still won't have it, though.

www.webmd.com/add-adhd/childhood-adhd/news/20110418/study-adhd-linked-preterm-birth

Not here. 2.5 hour homebirth.

Pretty severe autism.

My birth (or rather, my mum’s labour) was about the worst you could get. Breech, induced, immediate cord prolapse, crash section as I would have been dead pretty soon. Massive haemorrhage for mum.

I’ve never had a diagnosis (though I have severe anxiety but that is probably due to life events).

My sibling’s labour lasted about 45 minutes and he has dyspraxia (and probably autism).

I think I might have read about a link between hypertension/pre eclampsia in pregnancy and ASD but I may have imagined it

Thanks everyone - I do sometimes wonder if there are any neurological difficulties that my DS may have experienced due to mild lack of oxygen hence why he came out screaming like that. Also someone mentioned reflux and swallowing problems as a sign, my son had both.

I do sometimes wonder if there are any neurological difficulties that my DS may have experienced due to mild lack of oxygen hence why he came out screaming like that.

Did your son suffer lack of oxygen or do you just think he might have because he screamed (presume you mean cry) when he was born? It's quite normal for babies to be noisy.

@Eltonsglasses I am just assuming that he did experience mild oxygen deprivation hypoxia I think it's called.. as they rushed him off to be resuscitated in the living from my bedroom - but when she got to the corridor he let out a massive scream and pretty much didn't stop..

That combined with a few
Other factors such as severe reflux, literally terrible/challenging sleep and he did suffer a belly button infection also which required an overnight stay for us in hospital and antibiotics for him..