Cerebral Palsy - Causes

Cerbal Palsy is aways the result of a brain damage, sometimes caused before birth - maybe by an accident where the mother is hurt during the pre-natal period.

Causes of CP:

Premature deliveries are especially susceptive to the problem due to the fact that the brain may not be ready in its development.

If the CP is caused during the time between birth and age 2-3, it is called a post-natal CP.

It could also be caused by an infection or another medical problem with the mother like diabetes, high blood pressure etc. Sometimes cerbal palsey is caused during birth - it can be a lack of oxygen, or a general difficult delivery causing the cerebral palsey

Causes of post natal CP can be central nerve system infections, physical injuries, hemorrage in the brain, or an asphyxia in the early childhood up to age two.

CP is not contagious

Cerebral Paulsy is not something you can catch from other people (it is not contagious), nor will you get CP later in life (after age 2 approximately, when the brain has fully developed).

Cerbal Palsy - premature birth is a risk

The children with the highest risk of developing a CP are the prematurely born, the children who need keeping on ventilators for weeks and the ones with internal bleeding in the brain (intraventricular or intracranial hemorrhages). The hightest risk of a brain hemorrhage is with low weight babies. The bleeding will often damage the parts of the brain controlling the motoric functions and this is what can cause CP. Hemorrhages destroying normal brain tissue and/or creating cysts around the motor region ventricles increase the risk of the child developing CP.

Children born with malfunctioning kidneys, heart or spine also have a higher than normal risk of developing CP.

Cerebral Palsey and smoking

Many of the pre-natal brain damages or malformations, can not be seen even with the most sophisticated scanning equipment of today. The damages to the brain can be caused by injuries or trauma to the mother during pregnancy, exposure to chemicals like alcohol or drugs. Smoking has been proved to result in a lower average birth weight which in turn can be connected statistically to several conditions, CP being one of them.

Infections and other causes of cerebral paulsy

Infections like cytomegalovirus (CMV), toxoplasmosis and rubella during pregnancy can also injure the growing brain of the child. HIV (the forerunner of AIDS) can also be the cause of brain damage to the fetus.

There is a statistically proven connection between asphyxia at birth and the development of CP in a child. The asphyxia is often the symptom of a neurological problem, rather than the cause of one (CP).

However, for about one in ten of children with Cerbal Palsy, the cerebral palsey (paulsy) condition is directly related to asphyxia at birth.