mmalabanan
Nowadays, more and more women prefer to deliver their babies via Caesarian (or C-section) as they feel anxious about giving birth naturally. However, a new study conducted by researchers at York University in Canada revealed that giving birth via Caesarean section can affect a newborn baby’s brain development.
Based on the findings of the research team led by Dr Scott Adler and Dr Audrey Wong-Kee-Yo, delivering a baby via C-section slows a baby’s spatial attention, affecting their ability to concentrate and focus.
To prove this, the researchers monitored the eye movement of different groups of three-month-old babies. The researchers used eye movement as an indication of what caught the newborn babies’ attention. According to them, eyes cannot move to the direction where someone’s attention is not directed. Thus, subsequent eye movement indicates changes or disruption in the mechanisms involved in attention.
Based on the results of their study, infants delivered via C-section had slower reflexive attention and saccadic eye movement compared to those delivered vaginally. However, the researchers have yet to find out if this effect will last throughout a lifetime.
Although it is not clear as to how the birth experience affects infants’ concentration, past studies have linked the procedure to obesity, asthma, as well as type 1 diabetes later on in childhood.
“The results suggest that birth experience influences the initial state of brain functioning and should, consequently, be considered in our understanding of brain development,” Dr Scott Adler said.
The World Health Organization has warned doctors to perform C-section only when “medically necessary” as it can result to deaths or infections.
