Asperger's and Cesareans...

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Alot of people I know of who have Asperger's have been born through Cesareans, and I'm just wondering if there could be some mild connection. My brother was born 11 weeks premature, and is now 11 years old, he has just been diagnosed with Asperger's and he was also born through cesarean. Anyone else hear noticed some sort of mild connection, or does anyone else here have similar experiences... Or is it just a coincidence?

There may be a connection if a disproportionate amount of children born via caesarian section have AS.

However, you need to look at your sample of people.

Out of all of the people you know, how many were born via caesarian? Of those, how many are NT? How many birth-canal babies are AS / NT.

I wouldn't think there is a direct link though, as most research is pointing toward Autism in all its many forms being genetic.

Robin

You can't conclude anything since there are other factors linked to the choice to do a c section. for instance, c sections are usually performed on older mothers. you can't determine whether AS was caused by the fact that the mother was older or the fact that she had a c seciton. I think you can't conclude that it was even related to that. just my humble opinion.

It's illogical ANYWAY! A cesarean child may suffer LESS damage. BTW I don't believe I was cesarean. My mother described it like I wasn't. And even if they DID have damage, why would it be the same? Most brain damage I have heard of was due to an attempted NORMAL delivery and due to the use of forceps, breech, or strangulation by the cord. The only known problems? retardation and cerebral palsy.

Steve

Thats weird, my brother had strangulation by the chord and has mild cerabl palsy too. Well thanks for your advise guys, it just seemed weird that most of the people I knew with Asperger's had been born by cesarean. Thanks for the opinions. =)

You're not the first one to think there might be a connection - however - it would seem to only be a contributing factor to someone who is already susceptible. Otherwise everyone who had AS would have been born via a C-Section. My son was by the way - he has HFA - and it was an emergency one because the cord was wrapped around twice. He was premature and too much wiggle room I guess. However the actual C-section may not be the factor but the reason for the C-section. For that it would have to be compared to emergency C-sections and scheduled ones.

I was born by Cesarean too.

Causation is one thing; correlation is another. Correlation just means that both tend to occur more often together than in the general population. Causation would imply that either the Aspergers caused the need for a c-section or the c-section caused the Aspergers.

I am willing to believe there is likely a correlation since it has been reported that an unexpected amount of ASD babies had unusual births (either premis, forced labor, c-section, obstetric complications, hypoxia, etc.). Sometimes it may complicate the Aspergers picture, since certain birth complications can actually lead to brain damage such as in the case of hypoxia, and add a further dimension to this Aspergian baby.

I for one was delivered c-section. My mother wasn't going into labor, I was almost a week late, and they then discovered I was too large for the birth canal (I was born 8lbs. 12 ounces and my mother is a small woman). So a c-section was the only option.

However, my APGAR scores were high so this would point away from unusual birth trauma for me.

Caesarean here too.

a very important concept in science:

correlation does not equal causation.

i was born by c-section because i was in fetal distress for 10 minutes, the umbilical cord got wrapped around my neck somehow. some people in my family, especially my biological father who lives in california attributes this to me being not like everyone else hahaha

OK, I saw the pattern. 1/4 are cessarean, and here it seems like 1/1(except me) are cessarean.

OH WELL! I am far sighted, most are near sighted. Most that have heart problems need a bypass. I needed to have part of my aorta and valve replaced(1 in 5000). I ended up getting an aneurysm. I was SHOCKED in the hospital to find I was AB+! I thought I HAD to be a universal donor, in keeping with my life, but I am a near universal recipient.(Did you know they actually have some very rare blood types?)

Outside of our differences though, I DO match the AS profile. Go figure.

Still, there ARE a lot of people delivered cesarean, and most aren't AS!

Steve

I was born the natural way, except that foreceps were used but that was not the cause of my AS. That was only used because my mom's small and I was the first baby. I have an above average IQ, and no other brain damage.

I was born via c-section 1 month late.