Autism Risk Due to Complications during Pregnancy

There are two things that may seriously augment the possibility of the newborn baby developing autism: complications during pregnancy and childbearing at a mature age. The article on autism in the British Journal of Psychiatry asserts that there is a connection between this affliction and the age of the child’s parents, mother’s age being more important. Other causes leading to a higher percentage of autism are previous miscarriages, proteinuria, pre-eclampsia, swelling. Mothers suffering from hypertension or diabetes also run a greater risk of their babies developing autism.

This condition can also be aggravated through using certain medicines, especially ones intended to alleviate psychiatric problems, although there is no definite proof that it is medicines that are to blame and not the generic part of the problem.

Blood loss also affects the fetus adversely. Blood deficiency may cause fetal hypoxia, a condition when there is a pronounced lack of oxygen in the mother’s body. It may result in irrevocable damage to the brain development and is conducive to developing autism.

The article brings autism down to a number of factors, generally of a genetic, physical and environmental nature, that influence the development of the brain. But maternal age and complications during pregnancies are set out by scientists as the most significant ones.

Source of the image: flickr.com/photos/walkadog.