Cerebral Palsy causes :

A child has CP because of damage to the developing brain. When the nerve cells die in the motor control centers of the brain, no message is communicated to the concerned muscles. These muscles become weak and motor movement is affected, which indicates CP. But why does this damage happen? For this there are no answers. What are known are mere risk factors, which indicate the possibility of CP.  But they are not the cause of CP. And there is no one single pointer either. There is always a combination of risk factors that could point to the likelihood of CP.

Cerebral Palsy is mostly congenital i.e. from damage to the foetal brain. At times it is acquired when damage to the brain happens during or after birth. In the 19th century, Dr. William Little had concluded that birth injuries led to CP. Later, Dr. Sigmund Freud contradicted this argument by saying that some abnormalities occurring prior to the baby’s birth were responsible for the condition.

Today, research scholars group these risk factors according to when the developing brain was damaged, before birth, during birth or after birth. Initially, consumption of cigarettes, alcohol, narcotic drugs etc. during pregnancy was considered high risk factor for such damage. Today, these and even viruses of HIV and Rubella are considered responsible less for CP than for mental retardation.

In the pre-natal stage, most of the risk factors arise out of the mother’s state of health. Her Diabetes, Hyperthyroidism, high blood pressure, poor nutrition, mental seizures or retardation, premature dilation of the cervix, bleeding from the placenta or premature separation of the placenta from the uterine wall could easily send the foetal brain into trauma and damage to the motor section. Incompatibility of mother’s and baby’s Blood Group or jaundice in pregnancy is no longer a cause for CP. These can easily be monitored and corrected.

During birth, apart from human error, the risk factors that need constant monitoring are chances of premature delivery, prolonged rupture of the amniotic membrane for over 24-hours, extremely slow foetal heart rate and a difficult delivery because of the foetal position.

In both pre-natal and during birth stages, lack of oxygen supply to the brain is a much bigger culprit. Next in line is Premature Births. Premature, low birth weight babies tend to hemorrhage easily. Cysts forming around the motor region of the brain or around the ventricles, following this hemorrhage, are more likely to lead to CP. What is not known is whether premature birth precedes CP or is it some abnormality in the brain, which leads to premature birth?

Last, but not least of all, risk factors arise in post-natal stage. These could be because of brain infections like meningitis or encephalitis or because of Head injuries from a fall, accidents and child abuse like the ‘shaken baby syndrome’. Leading to Acquired CP, these are the most noticeable and most preventable of all risk factors.