A new week, a new study into possible causes of autism. The spectrum disorder has the medical community stumped, but it's now thought there is a correlation between mothers whose labours were induced and children who go on to be diagnosed with autism.
According to an article in the BBC, a study published in JAMA Pediatrics involving of 625,000 children showed a link between moms who were given drugs to induce childbirth.
Although scientists maintain that inducing labour is safe and often necessary procedure, further research is needed to establish the reasons for the link. It could be that factors related to the disorder contribute to the baby needing induction, or something in the drugs have an effect on the baby's development.
"We don't want mothers to say, 'Under no circumstances do I want to be induced because I don't want a kid with autism'. That would be plain wrong,” said Professor Simon Gregory of North Carolina's Duke University.
Although avoiding induction could prevent autism in two out of every 1,000 births, researchers warn that doing so may endanger the baby or mother, since induction procedures can be life-saving.
My son was induced at 14 days when I failed to go into labour naturally. My waters were manually broken, yet from there everything went smoothly. I didn't need to take a single drug before or during the delivery.
But perhaps my son's development in utero explains why he was late. Another interesting possibility in this complex puzzle. Some other factors in pregnancy have been linked to autism.
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