Cause

The Cause of Birth Brain Injury:

There is overwhelming evidence that neural and mental disorders in children are caused by ICC at birth. “Infants … are the main victims of immediate clamping … with impaired mental and motordevelopment" – mental retardation and cerebral palsy [1].

ICC clamps a large portion of the child’s blood volume in the placenta, causing hypovolemia, and the child develops anemia after birth. [2-4]

In the immediate neonatal period, hypovolemia from ICC results in brain ischemia and deficient nutrition of the growing newborn brain. ICC has been taught to and widely practiced by obstetricians for years and still is. [5]

•	*Infant anemia* routinely precedes the development of neural disorders and mental retardation in childhood. Hemoglobin (anemia) at 9 months correlates with IQ at 5 years. [6,7]

•	The degree of infant anemia is proportional to the degree of childhood mental retardation. [8]

•	The portion of blood volume clamped in the placenta at birth determines the degree of infant anemia. [2-4]

•	Thus the amount of blood clamped in the placenta at birth determines the degree of mental retardation in grade school.

The child’s reflexes clamp the cord perfectly, prevent anemia and protect its brain. If you want intelligent children with normal brains, don’t clamp the cord.

The autistic / retarded / Special Education child is often associated with abnormal birth situations that usually involve ICC:

ICC is used and recommended [5] in the following birth situations and the risk of ASD and mental retardation is greatly increased in these birth situations compared to normal vaginal delivery. [9-12]

1.	Cesarean section – 3 to 4 times more likely to be autistic than normal vaginal birth [11]

2.	“At risk deliveries” – 4 times more likely to be autistic than normal vaginal birth [10]

3.	Low 5-minute APGAR score – 9 times more likely to be autistic than normal vaginal birth [9,12]

4.	Abnormal fetal heart tracing – 3 times more likely to be autistic than normal vaginal birth [11]

5.	Multi-fetal gestation – 2 times more likely to be autistic than normal vaginal birth [11]

The epidemics of ICC and Cesarean section (30% of births) parallel the epidemic of autism.

The Cure: Ending the Epidemic

When a cord clamp is not used, the child receives a large transfusion of placental blood, after which the cord vessels close naturally. With natural, physiological cord closure, the child receives enough blood and enough iron to prevent anemia for the first year of life, [2] enough blood volume to prevent ischemic encephalopathy, and to prevent mental retardation for the rest of its life.

Full, normal placental transfusion can be achieved at every birth by delaying cord clamping until the placenta is delivered and by resuscitating all “depressed” newborns with the placental circulation intact. [1]. Instituting these procedures in all hospitals will end the autism epidemic, and it should also end neonatal ischemic encephalopathy - cerebral palsy.