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franknfurter
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15 May 2013, 3:52 pm

just thinking whether you think either prematurity, birth trauma or both can be a contributing factor in having autistic spectrum disorders, ADHD or other delopmental disorders.



MakaylaTheAspie
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15 May 2013, 6:16 pm

Well, now that I think about it, I had an extremely traumatic birth. :chin:

This subject has been brought up a lot. Care to elaborate your thoughts?


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franknfurter
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15 May 2013, 6:26 pm

MakaylaTheAspie wrote:
Well, now that I think about it, I had an extremely traumatic birth. :chin:

This subject has been brought up a lot. Care to elaborate your thoughts?


well i also had a traumatic birth and was premature. i was thinking that being undeveloped as well as sustaining damage to the brain during birth could cause disorders through brain damage, i was looking at the brain and damage to certain sections of the brain could account for the characteristics and problems found in people with autistic spectrum disorders



GregCav
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15 May 2013, 7:06 pm

I don't know if I was premature, but I was born with the cord wrapped around my neck. I came out blue according to my mother, and was rushed out of the delivery room.



friedmacguffins
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15 May 2013, 7:15 pm

I probably should have been a C-section, was exposed to some weight loss drug, which caused hallucinations, and Bendectin.

But, I am related to people who have a comparable, neurological profile, and were never exposed to these things.



daydreamer84
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15 May 2013, 7:55 pm

I was born on time with no complications but my mum went to the hospital when she was 7 months pregnant and she was bleeding. They put her on a beta blocker to delay labour so I wouldn't be premature and it worked. So there was a complication with the pregnancy but not the birth, I guess.

Edit: However I did have Jaundice as a baby.



franknfurter
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15 May 2013, 8:04 pm

yeah, well the idea that birth trauma and prematurity is the only reason for autistic disorders does not really hold water as there is often a genetic link i think. but i do think that it may make it more likely, and i suppose someone with certain brain damage would be diagnosed with autism because the part of there brain that is damaged produces the same characteristics as that of someone with autism.



daydreamer84
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15 May 2013, 8:12 pm

franknfurter wrote:
yeah, well the idea that birth trauma and prematurity is the only reason for autistic disorders does not really hold water as there is often a genetic link i think. but i do think that it may make it more likely, and i suppose someone with certain brain damage would be diagnosed with autism because the part of there brain that is damaged produces the same characteristics as that of someone with autism.


It;s definitely more genetic than environmental (genes contribute more to the variation in a population of who has ASD and who doesn't- the heritability is around 80%). There's thought to be a small contribution from the environment (including prenatal) which interacts with genetics. Also, yes, some people can have acquired brain damage as a child and develop ASD. It's a small minority.



velocirapture
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15 May 2013, 11:43 pm

I was a one month premature, cord around the neck c-section baby. I was exposed to teratogens in the womb. There is also autism in my family.

There's a lot of talk in the natural birth community (of which I was/am a part) about how medications affect the infant brain and bonding right after birth. It makes sense to me that if you are going to have traits on the spectrum either way because of genetics and/or prior environmental factors, the results of traumatic birth or certain medications sometimes given in hospital delivery rooms would affect the still-developing infant brain and contribute to or worsen the severity of those symptoms. It would be interesting to see a study on it, but I don't know how it would work since you cannot get a time machine and observe the same individual being born two different ways.



GiantHockeyFan
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16 May 2013, 8:20 am

I was a three weeks premature, was enormous (almost 10lbs and my mother is small) and had the cord around my neck. Even though my father and his late brother have Aspie traits (both computer geeks) I am FAR more ASD than both of them. While I've never been hospitalized I was a very sick baby and spend the first few weeks in intensive care. Nobody else in either side of the family has anything else to AS but mental illness (depression, anxiety, etc) is rampant.

Another useless fact, I am the only person on either side of the family tree that doesn't wear glasses (I only wear sunglasses because the sun is so bright). In fact, I have near perfect vision. Could this be because of AS?



GregCav
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17 May 2013, 12:16 am

To GiantHockyFan.
Now that you mention it, I was a very sick baby. I caught every disease going. Probably not the same type of sick your thinking of, but thought it worth mentioning.

Regarding sight: My dad had thick glasses from school. My vision was better than average until mid-30's (I could read the extra-fine print on bank notes), which is when I first started wearing glasses for work. My long sight is still good but fading. I can still see very well at night (a trait which seems unusual within society).