Is cerebral palsy caused by infant ischemia and hypoxia during delivery? Some mothers and their families will choose cesarean section because they are worried about the birth of cerebral palsy children due to hypoxia during childbirth. In this regard, Wang Bin, director and associate professor of the Pediatrics Center of Pearl River Hospital, said recently in an interview with the Information Times reporter that cerebral palsy can be caused by brain damage caused by a variety of reasons. In recent years, the cases of brain damage caused by childbirth have become more and more rare. On the contrary, brain damage caused by other factors has increased. For babies with brain damage, early intervention can also avoid "cerebral palsy" to the greatest extent.

Few cases of brain damage caused by childbirth

"With the development of new methods of midwifery and new methods of resuscitation technology, fewer and fewer cases of brain injury occur in the delivery of pregnant women in formal hospitals. Previously, textbooks said that the incidence rate was 20%, but now it is certainly not so high." Wang Bin introduced. At the same time, the proportion of brain damage caused by perinatal adverse events such as intrauterine infection gradually increased.

Cerebral palsy is a sequela of brain injury. There are many reasons for brain injury, not only cerebral ischemia and hypoxia during delivery. It is worth noting that fetal ischemia and hypoxia can occur in utero, not necessarily at the moment of delivery. For example, the puerpera have placental insufficiency caused by pregnancy induced hypertension, diabetes, overdue pregnancy, etc., and umbilical cord winding, compression and other factors such as umbilical blood flow obstruction or blocking, "in this case, the fetus has brain damage before birth". Wang Bin pointed out that preterm birth is an important cause of nervous system damage that is concerned by the world at present. "Brain damage of preterm infants is mostly seen in newborns with gestational age less than 32 weeks".

Early intervention is easy to cure brain injury

If a newborn has brain injury, it may not be a cerebral palsy child. Early detection can buy time for treatment. Wang Bin pointed out that parents should pay attention to the baby's primary health care, and pay attention to the "milestones" in the baby's development process, such as following people's eyes, laughing in three months, sitting in six months, etc. In addition, parents should be alert that if a baby has brain damage, it may not be dull. "Small movements such as blinking, dancing, tongue sticking, etc. of the newborn may also reflect brain damage".

Wang Bin introduced that mild hypoxic-ischemic brain injury generally has no sequelae; In moderate cases, 30%~50% will cause sequelae; The severe mortality rate reached 50%, and almost all survivors had sequelae. High risk infants should be effectively and systematically evaluated within 6 months of birth. Because during this period, the baby's brain is in the stage of rapid growth and development, early intervention can maximize the repair and regeneration of the damage. In recent years, brain nutrition protection, occupational therapy, internal environment repair, sensory integration training and other methods have been adopted in medicine to treat neonatal brain injury, with a cure rate of more than 90%, greatly reducing the incidence of cerebral palsy.

Information Times reporter Zhang Xiuli Correspondent Hu Qiongzhen