Birth asphyxia and cerebral palsy.

Abstract

There has been a societal presumption that most, if not all, cases of hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy-induced cerebral palsy occur during the 3 hours that are related to the events of labor and delivery; society has tended to overlook the remaining 7000 hours of the pregnancy. As a result of this societal perspective, often times the obstetrician has been targeted unfairly as the person who is responsible for a given child's neurologic injuries. Rather, the entire pregnancy, labor, delivery, and well beyond birth require examination to understand fully the pathophysiologic mechanisms that are responsible for an infant's brain injuries, and their long-term impact on the child.