A question to parents of Autistic Children

[maz]

Ah no one is offended here its great that someone is showing an interest in autism full stop.

I really dont think it matters what type of delivery one has in regards to autism. I have a few friends with children with autism and we have all delivered differently..so induction, age and state of mother really is nothing to say the least. Many people I know worry more about the MMR needles given at the 12 month mark here in Australia...I to was one and waited for months after the actual due date of these....Mateauz is 18 months old and has only jsut recieved them now.

Unless you have a family history or other children with autism I wouldnt really worry in length about it. I agree with the others...its more to do with genetics then birth situations because if that was the case I would have 2 autistic children...instead I have one and a child that suffers from cerabal palsey

[~Raven~]

My ASD child was born on his EDD. Labour was spontaneous and only quickened up with ARM at 4-5cm, so no induction.

I believe there are undiagnosed adults in our extended family who are on the spectrum also.


HTH

[christy]

I'm not offended either I too think its good that someone takes an interest in Autism.

I do understand the fear of it now.... totally. But remember, Autism is a spectrum. There are varying degrees of it, and not everyone is low functioning, or has a hard time communicating. Heck, most of Silicon Valley is ASD.... seriously, its a majority there and its considered "normal". Bill Gates is Autistic. Its not the end of the world to have the diagnosis

[murraysmum]

my son was born 10 days overdue and was a 7 hr labour

i dont think its caused by what ever its caused by and with reasearch we will find out why one day

[~Saram~]

Wow, interesting article. I haven't read it before and honestly my brain is kind of fuddled at the moment and I skipped over a lot of it but here is my 2 c worth.

My son has autism - Aspergers. My SIL has 2 children on the spectrum and we are guessing that my other SIL may have one as well. Just after my DS was diagnoised my SIL rang me about a study linking pre-eclampsia with autism as we both had pre-eclampsia. I have also read the ones about vaccinations and quite and recently there was a report that they have found 4 genes that 'may contribute' to autism.

Our story is that we were induced with syntocin after rapid onset of pre-eclampsia. I remember vividly the horrible moment when they broke my waters and I could feel my DS start to panic. He was born 5 hrs later (only 2 on syntocin as I ripped out my drip and the midwives agreed to see how I went on my own) and he also got stuck under my hip bone and I pushed for 2 hrs - so I guess as births go it wasn't untraumatic.

Having said that I believe that DS had issues before he was born. in utero his movements were extremely forceful. He responded to loud noises and bass music very strongly - after one movie I was left very bruised and extremely sore.

I guess you can also look at it from the other point of view, knowing that labour stems from contributuions from mother and baby - perhaps it's not that inducement causes autism, rather that children with autism require interventions in their birth???

Also I think the difficulty with autism is that it is so different. Some people aren't diagnoised until they are 8-9 yrs old. Many parents see big changes around 1 or 4 yrs old and believe this is when they're child autism starts. Hard to define a study when each family perceives it so differently