Autism linked to major pregnancy stress.

I found an atricle that says they have found links to major stress between the 24th and 28th week of pregnancy being a cause of Autism.

When I was 24 weeks pregnant with DS1 my mum passed away and as you can imagine that would cause a lot of stress and now he is starting to have testing done to see if he has ASD because he shows a lot of traits.

What does everyone think?

Oh and I don't want to worry anyone here thinking if they have a little stress then their child will have Autism. This is just from my own research and needing answers.

I was helping out with a local group here once and also just other friends of friends stories. So most of the background I've heard is a combination of Mum's having certain medical conditions like low thyroid, and traits running in both families
and
different stresses during pregnancy
so my neighbour's brother's son, the Mum walked a lot in summer, and the doctor's warned her not to;
acquaintance who had a son, where she worked long hours in their business;
stress but feeling that the cause was her son's vaccinations.

I don't know if there's much to these theories though. imho it's more genetic and the stress might bring the autism traits out a lot more??

Wow. Is there any real evidence if this?

I dont really know what to say but i feel as though 'blaming' stress is not very fair to the mama :-( how severe would the stress have to be?

I dont know much about Autism at all tbh, my cousins son is autistic but we dont have much to do with them.

From SE Xperia x10a

That's rather interesting, I'd be interested in reading the article if you could PM me the link.

My entire pregnancy with both my boys were stressful, DS1 has been diagnosed with an ASD, DS2 we have no concerns with at all.

It says stress like a death or job loss or long distance move. So not just normal stresses.

Do you have the link or title to this study please Antheia. My DD is PPD-NOS (or A-typical autism). I was carrying her when I was in the Navy and during that period of my pregnancy I had to fight to get taken off 13 hour watches, as well as fighting the repercussions of my refusal to do other stupid and dangerous things they thought they could make me do, like stand in the ****ing down rain for half an hour in the middle of winter. If my DD's issues have something to do with what those a-holes did to me, I'd very much want to know.

Have pm'ed you the link Yeddi.

Hmm Ds2 is currently undergoing assessment for ASD and my pregnancy with him was beyond stressful between 20-37wks. I always wonder if my pregnancy being so bad is the reason he is what he is. Could you pm me the article link to please?

Well, if there's any truth to this article, I may have something to worry about in the future :(.

DH was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma when I was about 20 weeks pregnant, and he was going through all the tests, then treatment - which he finishes in a couple of days when I'll be 32 weeks pregnant. So, basically having the higher levels of stress through the exact part of pregnancy they're talking about.

:hug: If it's not a commercial site, I think you can link here.

It's very interesting. Though I have in mind generations whose parents experienced war or other traumatic things - surely not all those children were affected? Extreme stress might turn out to be a factor, but I'm not sure I'd put all my eggs in one blame-basket when it comes to spectrum disorders. xo

Hmm.... I didn't have any stress at all, in fact life was amazing... DD1 has autism. :dunno:

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It's very interesting. Though I have in mind generations whose parents experienced war or other traumatic things - surely not all those children were affected? Extreme stress might turn out to be a factor, but I'm not sure I'd put all my eggs in one blame-basket when it comes to spectrum disorders. xo

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I agree, I wouldn't blame stress as the sole cause.

The article is interesting, I have felt for a long time that my pregnancy complications, stress and his birth has meant he is the way he is. Especially given that there is no history of any disorders in either family (Asthma and Eczema is about the only thing in our families....)

Nor would I. I still believe that autism is about toxic load but the chemical changes that could occur when mother is stressed could explain some things. Stress will produce adrenaline, the flight or fight hormone. This could mean PPD kids bodies could have built up a tolerance to chemical danger responses, and just like how a drug addict needs bigger and bigger doses to get high, the level of toxic substances they are exposed to have to be fairly high before their system reacts them. Therefore, if the substances are on the smaller side, they hold on them rather than process them because their bodies haven't recognised the threat. Just thinking out loud...

Look, im not saying Stress = Autism. I had a very stressful pregnancy with DS with losing my mum and I had a really bad time with his birth. His problems got me wondering if what happened to me was a cause. We don't have any history of ASD. We stopped vaccinating at 12 months so the MMR could be another cause.

I guess we'll never know what causes it. But it's interesting nonetheless.

I wasn't stressed with M's PG :)

They say in the article that stress during those particular weeks of pregnancy INCREASES THE RISK of Autism. So maybe the pregnancies/babies this applies to were always predisposed to possibly becoming ASD children and the stress just triggered it.

I dont know; I am a firm believer in predisposition for anything physical or mental that comes about, that the risk is there and some trigger just brings it to the forefront iykwim.

Yeah that is what I was trying to get at Freya. i just couldn't word it as good as you have :)

Yeah that does make sense, I know with M when we took her off milk she improved greatly due to her allergy, and would say that the chemical effects of giving what her body considers a toxin would lessen the effects.