Oxygen deprivation at birth - and behavioural problems later??? any thoughts

[SunisShinin]

I may live to regret asking the question but does anyone have any knowledge or experience of behavioural problems in a children being linked to difficult births or lack of oxygen during delivery?

I've posted a few times about ds1(4) being referred for ASD assesment. Special needs lady came to house Monday and said she def agreed there was something but it didn't look like ASD. She's asked Ed Psych to visit at home and pre-school - this is addition for Paeds referal made by HV.

The things is ds1 had a pretty terribe birth. After 20+ hour labour during which his heartrate had been dipping and recovering it dipped to just 80bpm and did not recover. I had to be transferred so it was 90mins between drop inb heart rate and birth by C section under GA. I'm pretty sure that shortly before they knocked me out the heart rate was approx 60bpm.

Next day obs dr visited and apologised for GA but said it had been necessary to deliver asap as 'i thought your baby would be brain damaged' - words a new mum always wants to hear. I remember that pre-op I saw there was a paeds team ready to take him to SCUBU but miraculously he was deivered with APGAR of 9 and needed no additional support.

To date he has hit all of his milestones but for last 12 months has started to lag in language development, and has real problems concetrating.

Sorry for long posts but thought background might help.

Interesting thread, it's 3 years old, though.

DD1 born with cord wrapped double round her neck - was told to push like hell to get her out as she was in distress.

The minute she was born, she was blue/purple, cord was cut and she was whisked out of the room. Came back 10 mins later, and all seemed ok.

Fast forward 7.6yrs and we have a DD1 with ADHD. From birth she was hard work, never slept and was always on the go. Formal diagnosis last year at 6yrs 11mnths.

DD2 and DS were ok at birth - stunned but no concerns re distress etc, and they are, so far, at 6yrs and 4yrs old, NT, although DS is under SALT at present.

Hi, not sure if this helps,we found out when my daughter was 15 years old that she was oxygen starved, don't know anymore than that, but she had developmental problems,was on Ritalin at age 7-15 for ADD, when I questioned the diagnosis repeatedly, that's when they sent her for MRI scan and eeg, the results of which confirmed she had been starved of oxygen and should not have been on Ritalin.

Just in case anyone is following this - my friend had a car crash and was on a life support machine for 7 months.

She now presents with quite a few ASD/C symptoms.

ASD/C is really a description of a set of symptoms rather than a full understanding of what causes them. But does it matter? My ASD/C relatives are happy and my car-crash survivor friend is happy.

Good Luck everyone

Hi
Good question. My daughter is now in her 20s and we have had a lot of behavioural problems over the years. She went into distress as soon as my waters were broken by the midwife, she had the umbilical cord wrapped round her neck twice in a fishermans knot and was literally getting strangled in the womb. The midwife rushed her away as soon as she was born as she wasn't breathing and returned some 10 mins later. She had a large swelling on her head. My daughter has no sense of danger, she flys into a rage if she doesn't get her on way or i change plans at short notice. She will not listen to any explanation. She takes many unnecessary risks, has no fear and puts herself in danger. Her friends take advantage of her and she just can't see it. I just worry for her future!

I know it's an old thread but still interesting I think.

DD was born 6 weeks prem, distress during birth and didn't breathe for 3 minutes after birth. Very low apgars. She met her physical milestones but has now been diagnosed with CP. For her the physical effects are very very mild but we see symptoms more in her behaviour, sleep, concentration, emotional control - very similar to ADHD in fact but apparently these are also known facets of CP. Same symptoms different label but probably the same underlying cause which is brain areas that aren't working like they should.

My son also has ASD. He has ADHD symptoms also. He was deprived of oxygen during birth and it was emergency c-section. I would like to ask my paediatrician for MRI scan or EEG for my son also. Could someone please say what treatments are there for children who found oxygen starvation in EEG or MRI scan for their ADHD symptoms?

I have read that only about 2% of children have asd whereas children with cerebral palsy (which is caused by a brain insult at birth usually) make about 6%. CP is a known brain injury and it's obviously causing Asd along with the CP, so it seems logical to assume birth damage is a contributory factor in some cases and it's not all genetics.....unless there is a genetic predisposition with an added insult?

Some brain damage is so slight it doesn't show except on specialist MRIs so it's a possibility it has contributed to ASD

Another one with ASD / ADD symptoms who stopped breathing at birth for several minutes after a difficult labour and delivery.

The guilt is horrific. 😢 I was offered a c/s hours before but didn't take it.

i know exactly what you mean. I turned down being induced 2 days before they ended up inducing anyway. I do think it's irresponsible of NCT to encourage women to resist intervention. But why did I listen? i don't believe doctors want to induce/c-section because they want to get home for the weekend but rather because they are risk-averse.
That said, I've heard that the oxytocin they give you to induce which causes the violent contractions may knock out the heartbeat (already inconsistent). But then younger DD who had textbook delivery has issues (although far less severe). So is it it genetic or environmental or both? In so many cases so hard to know. But I'll be pushing for genetic testing at next appointment with paediatrician because I don't think I'll ever stop craving an answer. But also do remember that threads like this attract women who had dodgy deliveries and have SEN children. There are plenty of women out there who had bad deliveries but whose children have no particular issues who wouldn't know anything about such threads as these.

My dd was born 19 years ago with cord strangulation Apgar of 5, which was generous considering she was blue and took over 5 mins to resuscitate. Normal with milestones but slept all the time as a baby. Doc suggested we should have been more thankful than worried. At 2 she was dx with severe hyperopia and we were told she would probably never drive a car. Glasses +8 strength and squint in both eyes. Risk taking behaviour and no filter which got worse with puberty. After a suicide attempt the psych agreed her behaviour could have been from birth injury but we have never had any advice on how to deal with her. She did get a license but had an accident which wrote her car off within 6months. She has just failed her first year studying at Uni. She says it was unexpected but I noticed during the year her comments were that her tutors were not very impressed with her attitude. It's an ongoing theme. I love her so much but she's terrifying and so erratic. I have tried talking to her about it but she just continues to go off the handle if she doesn't like what you have to say. I hope my post encourages someone with young children to get better help. There's little info available. Sorry if my post comes up twice I lost the first one...

Interesting thread. I appreciate that the thread is about the effects of a traumatic birth so this is a slightly coming at matters from the opposite angle, but did any of you notice a difference in utero in your ASD child? As that might help to work out whether the birth was relevant or whether it was a pre-existing genetic condition.

In my situation there were concerns over DS2 during delivery - not sure of the precise details but the room filled with people and I was told that unless I delivered in the next few pushes they would take me for an emergency CS. Things then clearly improved a bit, he was delivered without a CS and was strong and healthy with an Apgar of 9. I occasionally wonder if the delivery caused his speech and language issues (which are probably ASD).

However when I think back he was very different to my other DS in utero. I noticed this at the time and wondered if there was a problem with his hearing as he rarely kicked and never responded to people's voices, whereas DS1 would kick whenever I was in a room full of people. DS2 is still very chilled and laid back and mainly does his own thing, parallel to and ignoring others.

Yes, I have heard that too - that genetic SEN issues can cause a difficult birth not the other way round. DS was my first so I had no idea but he was either very still in the womb or very hyper (if that doesn't sound ridiculous). in hospital before birth after a particularly energetic episode the midwife commented 'Oh we've got a lively one here' [or something kind of to the effect that he was trouble!]. at the time I dismissed it as old wives' talk but years later with ADHD etc diagnosis you begin to wonder.