Factors That Increase The Risk of Cerebral Palsy

Of course, cerebral palsy is a disease that you would never want to be ailed with, and you would never want to see any of your friends debilitated with it either. However, you may also be under the impression that it would never happen to you or anybody you know. However, it may be time to start familiarizing yourself with the factors that increase the risk of cerebral palsy.

To be completely correct, a risk factor is not something that causes something else to occur. A risk factor is simply a variable that increases the likelihood of something happening. In the case that you or someone you know fits into one or more of these characteristics, it doesn’t mean at all that you/they will develop cerebral palsy. These are simply confirmed factors that have increase the risk of cerebral palsy.

In parents, these are a few of the factors that can definitely increase the risk of cerebral palsy:

• A mother that is at least 40 years of age.
  • Mother that is at age 20 or younger.
• Father that is at age 20 or younger.
• Being of the African American ethnicity.

Like parents, children also have certain factors that have been proven to contribute to the development of cerebral palsy. Some of these are:

• Being the first child born.
• Being the fifth child or later born.
  • An extremely low birth weight (3.5 pounds or less).
• Being a premature infant (born less than 37 weeks old).
• Being one of a pair of twins (this is especially true if the other twin dies).

There are also a few more known factors that can contribute to the risk of cerebral palsy. These don’t have specifically to do with certain people, but they are certain situations.

• If there is a blood compatibility of Rh or ABO between the infant and the mother.
• If the mother was infected with German measles or another virus in the early stages of pregnancy.
• If the infant was attacked by micro-organisms in the CNS (central nervous system).

You may find that you fit into more than one of these situations. This does not really mean that you will in fact develop cerebral palsy, but falling into several risk factors increases the risk dramatically.

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