According to a California analysis, 40-year-old mothers-to-be have a 50% higher chance than younger moms to bear a child affected by autism. Which continues to say that it is not likely that this delay in motherhood plays a big role in the current autism epidemic. Mothers over 40 years old in California increased by 300% while autism grew by 600% which at first look seems that the rise in autism parallels older mothers. Older moms don’t add up as the reason for this increase in autistic children, which is now one out of 100 kids.
LA Times.com reports that researchers have been aware that parent’s age directly correlated with the child’s risk of developing autism. Figuring out how big that role is – that’s what is being focused on the most… also which sex is more of a factor than the other. In the Journal of Autism Research it was shown that women over 40 were 77% more likely to deliver an autistic baby than those younger than 25. Those mothers-to-be that are between the ages of 25-29 are 51% likely to give birth to an autistic infant. These results were said to be independent of the father. For father over 40 there was a 59% risk of autism if the mother was 30 or younger but no increase if the mother was over 30. Older women are also more likely to suffer from gestational diabetes or to develop autoimmune disorders both of these have been linked to the increased risk of autism.
“There is a long history of blaming parents” for the development of autism, said senior author Dr. Irva Hertz-Picciotto, a professor of public health sciences and a researcher at the UC Davis MIND Institute who has been studying potential causes for the autism increase.”We’re not saying this is the fault of mothers or fathers. We’re just saying this is a correlation that will direct research in the future.”
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