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- C-section babies’ development is slower.
- The number of C-section deliveries have also steadily increased over the past few years.
Do you think the way that babies are born affects their focus and development? Well, one study conducted in Toronto’s York University claims that yes, it does.
In fact, according to its researchers, babies born by caesarian are slower when it comes to development than babies born by vaginal delivery. They examined how birth experience can influence an infant’s brain development.
The study’s lead author Prof. Scott Adler of the university’s department of psychology in the faculty of health and the Centre for Vision Research said that the research is important as the number of C-section deliveries has increased throughout the years.
“This is just another piece of information that parents can have when they’re weighing the pros and cons of having a C-section that is not medically necessary,” he said.
He added that a lot of medical organizations in the US and UK have also cautioned the rates of C-sections, saying that it’s too high.
During the experiment, 24 babies were shown images on the screen. Researchers flashed a black triangle, for one-tenth of a second. This is just long enough to attract their attention, but not long enough to initiate eye movement. Then the picture of a red or green X was shown in the same spot and remained there until the baby looked at it.
They then measured the speed of each baby’s hand movement and found out that babies delivered in C-section were around 100 milliseconds slower than those born normally.
“It’s a big deal because typically they’re making eye movements in about 300 milliseconds, so that’s about 33-per-cent slower.”
In the Philippines, a study also looked at 66 C-section babies and compared them with 352 infants born vaginally. This experiment was performed when the babies were four months and were done again when they were 12 months old.
In tests done in five areas: communication, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, problem-solving, and personal social ability, it is revealed that those born by C-section have poorer scores in all tests. The largest difference being in fine motor skills.
However, despite the results, the researchers reassured mothers that are required to do C-section labor as it is performed to protect their child’s health.
