Does birth trauma cause autism

[Annabellemason]

Hiya, firstly I don’t want to offended or upset anyone but I was curious if anyone believes that birth trauma causes autism.

my little boy is 3 in august, he’s undiagnosed autism but he definitely is autistic. I’m still new to this but I think he’s the lower end of the spectrum it’s just his speech that is he biggest issue (he’s starting SALT next month).

I think I experienced a horrific birth I was induced at 38 weeks for reduced movements. I had my waters broken, his heart rate dropped dramatically and they had to attach a heart monitor to his head. I had 7 failed epidurals before rushed down to the c section ward where I had a spinal injection and he was delivered via forceps. I had stitches and lost 2 litres of blood so I’d say I had a quite traumatic birth. He didn’t cry straight away but it wasn’t an overly long amount of time.

I didn’t smoke, drink, drugs, even drank decaf tea! I had a really easy pregnancy apart from UTI infections but I didn’t even have morning sickness. So I googled what can other causes of autism if it’s possibly not genetics and it said birth trauma has links to possible cause of autism.

Just wanted to know other peoples views on it (again I don’t want to offend anyone I know it’s so sensitive to people including myself). ☺️

It’s so funny how our minds work isn’t it 😂 I’m not sure if birth trauma would cause asd but I know it can cause other things, my cousin is disabled from lack of air at birth. But I do often wonder if my daughters problems started in the womb, My daughter 3 is waiting for a adhd / asd assessment, she is so sensory to touch and has a lot of triggers around it along with other things. She was breech and they tried to turn her in my stomach a few times, totally painful for me so I’m wondering if them trying to turn her has causes how she reacted to touch now, she’s been like it since a baby, I’m not sure we will ever get the answers but it just makes me wonder.

I’d never considered it before but where I had a traumatic birth I do wonder (obviously don’t believe anything you read online). But I was told by hv he might be slower as a baby because he had an instrumental birth which he certainly was his speech was great tho till he lost it around this time last year.

I think if there was a certain link they would have found it by now, so much money has gone into research of causes... the genetic link (twins and sibling research) seems to be the only real consensus.

However one thing I find interesting about retained primitive reflexes is it gives a logical reason why a ventouse delivery in our case might lead to certain difficulties that I see in my ds. It's not proven but we are going to try assessment/treatment see what happens!

I haven’t read up on this for a while but I believe there is a correlation between assisted deliveries and higher rates of autism. It isn’t clear whether autism causes circumstances that result in assisted delivery or whether assisted delivery results in higher rates of autism.

There is a very high genetic component to autism though.

Genes can be turned on and off so I guess it is possible that genes get turned on/off as a result of events in pregnancy or birth, or possibly even very early childhood which could affect how a person turns out.

I struggle massively with this as several of my choices related to circumstances during my pregnancy during labour may possibly have led to the pretty horrendous birth I had and the disabilities and behavioural issues my child has.

Me too, I’m struggling massively with the thought I may of caused my son to have autism from my birth. I know it’s more than unlikely but no one in either side of the family has ever been diagnosed with autism. He’s too young to be assessed and I wouldn’t know where to begin with genetic testing.

I would absolutely love more children but if it is genetic I don’t think i would unfortunately.

No one in my family has a diagnosis either, but they are there. Once our eyes had been opened to what autism is we could see it on both sides of the family. Some would, undoubtedly, have gotten diagnosed had they been born recently, in others there are definitely traits but possibly not enough to be diagnosed. None are anywhere near obvious that people without knowledge of autism would notice though. I try and use this as comfort that it was just genetics.

Yes it can. I looked into this following my son's horrific birth. Lack of oxygen can have such an impact that a child will meet the criteria for autism as a result. I had a long conversation with my son's ASD clinician as a result actually.

Either way, whatever happened happened, and I'm working through it (and the guilt I feel, no matter how ridiculous that is). It is hard not to dwell on the past, but we are where we are and all we can do is the best for our kids now. ♥️

It runs in families and that implies a genetic link

Yes it probably is genetics but either side of my son’s family there’s no one diagnosed with autism (obviously can be undiagnosed). But I think that it’s an interesting theory

I believe that I have read research suggesting that being breech or otherwise malpositioned for birth when it starts (head back, cord caught up etc) is more common in autistic children than in the population as a whole, but Istr that the conclusion was then that more of these children survive being born than previously due to medical interventions, not that the difficult birth damages them.

Anecdotally there may also be a trend of ND babies (paired with presumably quite a few ND mums across that sample too!) struggling more to establish breastfeeding, which if it were a Thing, would also be a selective pressure against autism throughout history.