Thursday, May 29, 2008

could Cesarean sections be partly responsible for autism increse

Today I was reading an article in the Los Angeles times on how Cesarean sections are on the rise due to ob/gyn doctors being fearful of lawsuits and sometimes doing them unnecessarily. This has lead to premature delivery of babies who might be vulnerable to autism or other types of developmental disabilies. Don't get me wrong. I still believe that most of the perceived increase in autism is due to changes in special education law which have allowed persons to qualify for services such as ABA. This is in addition to changes in diagnostic criteria and the increasing recognition that persons of normal intelligence can be autistic.

However, no one really knows for sure if more persons with autism spectrum disorders are being born then were 15 or more years ago. As there is no real biologic marker to determine whether or not someone is autistic it is mostly just guesswork. I believe it could be possible that there is a slight increase in autistic children being born, though not the huge increases that SAFE MINDS and other vaccine causes autism groups claim. One of the theories is that at least some of the cause of autism is due to increased paternal age of fathers of autistic children. I know that some people who blog on the internet such as Harold Doherty and John Best had their autistic sons when in their 40s. Also, ironically enough Donald Trump who recently became a father at age 61 said that he was going to not have his offspring receive a multitude of vaccinations at once to minimize the chances of the baby becoming autistic.

It seems to me that premature birth is one of the factors that could cause a person to become autistic. Another irony is that Sally Bernard, one of the leaders of the vaccines causes autism movement had an autistic son who was a triplet, born prematurely. It is much more likely this is what caused her son's autism than mercury in vaccines. It seems that there might be a temporal relationship between cesarean sections and the rate of autism increases. Of course with my problems that won't be easy to research and I don't know if I am going to pursue that avenue. I have shown, I believe, there is no temporal relationship between autism and vaccines in my article "Autism and Thimerosal is there really a correlation?" http://www.jonathans-stories.com/non-fiction/thimerosal.html However, there is still a temporal relationship between changes in special education law and the commercialization of ABA treatments with their pie-in-the-sky claims of normalcy for nearly 50% of autistic children who undergo the 40 hour per week paradigm starting before they are age 36 months. I suspect, as I said before that this is a factor.

However, the incidence of Cesarean sections and how much they have increased and whether or not this is a factor in some autism deserves some exploration. It could be the basis for scientific research into the etiology of at least some autism also.

8 comments:

concerned heart said...

Older paternal age is responsible for around a third of all cases of autism. http://autism-prevention.blogspot.com/ This autism is non-familial.

If there is brain damage during a c-section the child might have behaviors of autism.

Anonymous said...

I don't think there is any research showing that Cesarean sections cause autism, only that they are associated. Some researchers think that an early sign of neurological difficulties is that the baby has problems with the birth process. It may be that there is some (small?) increase in autistic babies surviving the birth process because of Cesarean sections.

jonathan said...

Hi Donna, thanks for commenting. I don't know if there is any research either, but I think it is something that should be looked into and if a link could be found perhaps promising leads would emerge. Certainly thimerosal, mercury vaccines have been researched ad nauseum and clearly have provided no leads or understanding of the etiology of autistic like conditions.

Anonymous said...

There are many anecdotal reports of autistic babies having larger than average heads; however, I do not know whether anyone has studied this and found it to be a statistically significant difference.

Perhaps some C-sections may be the result of autistic babies' heads being too large for a natural birth.

Anonymous said...

Excellent, now this is a subject that does not make the press, Cesarean sections are not natural for mammals, the birth process is a natural selection, survival of the best, passage of hormones, and chemicals that are not passed in a Cesarean are necessary to survive. also breastfeeding needs to come into play, chemical formulas are fed to most babies,Older paternal age and materal age, diet of parents , drinking,chemical exposure while pregnant,also was the mother or father a Cesarean birth,also, nationality...Lots to think about they need to stop blaming vaccines, i have given birth to 2 girls 2 boys, breastfed, natural birth, live in the country, do not drink, not a cesaren birth in my family, and no autism either, all my children were given vaccines too,

Anonymous said...

I think they should research that avenue. The fontanelle (the soft spot)in new borns has a designated function, it allows the head to change shape for easy passage of the head through the birth canal and possibly STIMULATE SOME OTHER BRAIN FUNCTIONS..........Babies being born by C-section do not make use their fontanelles...so who knows what reactions comes from that action...!

Anonymous said...

Large heads dont stop vaginal births thats why the skull is not fully harden Ventura - most woment get unnessary c-sections at their doctors pressure - it's the doctors scaring the moms into thinking their bodies cant handle the being it created - our pelvis bones open up as long at the womens body has time to birth and move around not just lie there (which closes your pelvis 30%)her body can and will deliver naturally - all the medications injected into mom and newborn have much more chemicals and side effects.

Anonymous said...

One thing that isn't mentioned much, when a baby goes through the birth canal, it gets "inoculated" with certain bacteria and microbes that are natural to humans. The C-section babies have a different constellation of micro-fauna on their bodies. So maybe the C-section babies aren't fighting off what they should and their systems get attacked more by outside organisms. We have millions of years of symbiotic relationships with the microorganisms on our bodies. Not good to mess with mother nature.