No link between caesarean sections, autism

A new study has claimed that babies born via caesarean section are not at any greater risk of developing autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

The new research renounced the previous study that linked C-sections with autism. Instead, it suggests that an autistic child is more likely require a caesarean because of some unknown genetic or environmental factor.

Researchers at Irish Center for Fetal and Neonatal Translational Research, Cork, Ireland, re-examined the data that had previously shown children born via C-section were 21 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with autism.

The researchers also examined whether the autistic children had siblings who were also autistic.

They analyzed the mode of delivery among more than 13,400 pairs of siblings in which one child had autism. They found no link between C-section and autism.

According to Louise Kenny, one of the lead authors of both studies and an obstetrician and gynecologist at Cork University Maternity Hospital in Ireland, “The overall risk of autism spectrum disorder is very small and this most recent work suggests that most, if not all, the risk is not [due to] the cesarean section at all.”

The study has been published in the medical journal JAMA Psychiatry.