something to consider

[Beccadoula]

I just thought this was an amazing article, it sights the possibility that Pitocin could be a huge factor in Autistic children. For those of you planning your birth location, you might want to factor this in? Just a thought...

http://www.autismto day.com/articles /ATTN_Researcher s.htm

Particularly:
(from the article)
An informal survey among the dozen or so community midwives practicing in our geographical area and spanning the last 20 years, failed to identify any babies born at home who have since been diagnosed with autistic disorders. Every year I attend a national midwifery conferences sponsored by MANA which includes an exchange between midwives of practice problems and unusual trends. Among the 400 or so community midwives (CNMs and direct-entry midwives), no cases of autism have been reported. Admittedly this is not a rigorous scientific study but it does raise questions as to whether strict adherence to physiological management of intrapartum events, either alone or in combination with the self-selection of healthy women choosing home-based midwifery care, may confer some protective effect relative to autistic disorders.
We are very much interested in facilitating this form of research and would be happy to follow your lead in helping to bring about interest in it by scientists at US-Davis and elsewhere who are involved in the study of autistic disorders.

[snowmom5]

I haven't read the article though I have heard more speculation about pitocin being associated with things like sensory processing disorder and kids with various left-brain weaknesses. Autistic kids tend to be right-brain dominant learners (a.k.a. visual-spatial learners) with left-brain weaknesses, probably on the more extreme end of the continuum between the two.

Obviously that is an oversimplification, but here are my thoughts. Generally, anything that restricts blood flow to the baby, particularly later in pregnancy will affect the left brain more than the right brain, since the right brain forms first (or at least I read something to that affect someplace). The sort of blood flow restriction that could cause left brain weaknesses can have many various causes, but would generally be typical pregnancy complications that are more likely to be found among hospital birthers than homebirthers (say, preeclampsia, clotting, growth restriction, prematurity, and who knows what else, etc.). So it would depend a whole lot on how the study were set up, but I'd be cautious about putting causation between pit and autism where there may be merely correlation. KWIM? Interesting avenue for further research though!

[ColoradoMama]

Originally Posted by snowmom5

So it would depend a whole lot on how the study were set up, but I'd be cautious about putting causation between pit and autism where there may be merely correlation. KWIM? Interesting avenue for further research though!

Exactly. Sounds like it would be an interesting study though.

[MamaMonica]

Moved to Birth and Beyond.

[katmann]

I read the article and although it clearly suggests more research needs to be done, it's not well cited or researched, IMO. I don't think there's a single primary source. But it does raise very interesting questions. I just think that for those of us who feel strongly about natural birth in whatever setting (home, fsbc, hospital), if we are going to win our battles, we need better sources than that.

But I also realize that even suggesting the idea that a conventional birth intervention could have negative consequences doesn't exactly put a researcher in the front of the line for funding. It's an unfortunate situation.

[savithny]

I read that one a long time ago - at the time one of the researchers who had noticed that there was a correlation within his practice had gotten some funding to look into it further.

I have gone looking for followups to see if there have been any results. SO far nothing, which could mean that they found no correlation, or it could mean that it is a longitudinal study and they won't have signficant results for another 5-10 years.

The actual mechanism that I read proposed for why it would have an effect was not a blood flow mechanism. The thought was that flooding baby with synthetic hormones at a time when baby is normally flooded with oxytocin might actually burn out oxytocin receptors. That came from the discovery that some individuals with some forms of autism have some of their autistic behaviors change/lessen when given supplemental oxytocin as adults. the further thought was that the epidural drugs' effects on the baby's brain would enlarge that effect.

But again, that kind of study takes years to do properly, and it may well be that in a statistically significanltly sized group, the correlation that the researcher saw in his private practice does not show up.