Worry: It has been discovered that women who become pregnant within a year after giving birth could be putting their next child at risk of autism
Women who become pregnant within a year after giving birth could be putting their next child at increased risk of autism, a study says.
Such babies are three times more likely to have the developmental disorder, according to researchers.
They say that women’s bodies need time to recover from a pregnancy and that children conceived too quickly after childbirth may be deprived of vital nutrients.
The findings, based on a study of more than 600,000 California families, adds to the growing evidence that closely spaced pregnancies can be harmful.
Previous studies have shown that women with two closely spaced pregnancies are at risk of premature births and low birthweight.
Yesterday British doctors urged women not to panic over the study and stressed that the chances of autism remained low for any baby.
But they advised mothers to leave at least a year’s gap between having a baby and getting pregnant.
The research, published in the respected medical journal Pediatrics, looked at the incidence of autism among 663,000 second-born children in California born between 1992 and 2002.
The researchers worked out the ‘interpregnancy interval’ between the birth of a first child and the conception of the second, and took into account the ages of the parents, ethnic background, the mother’s education and whether they had private health insurance.
The author of the study, Dr Keely Cheslack-Postava, of Columbia University, New York, said: ‘These results suggest that children born after shorter intervals between pregnancies are at increased risk of developing autism.
‘The highest risk was associated with pregnancies spaced less than one year apart.’
Second children conceived within a year of an older sibling’s birth were 3.4 times more likely to have autism than a typical child of the same age.
Babies conceived 12 to 23 months after the first child’s birth were 1.9 times more likely to have autism, while a gap of two to three years between pregnancies increased the risks 1.2 times.
Close together: Women who fall pregnant again quickly risk a higher likelihood of a child with autism
More than 500,000 people in Britain have autistic spectrum disorder. People with the disability have problems communicating, socialising and empathising with other people.
The causes of autism remain a mystery, but is thought to be caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors – particularly when a baby is developing in the womb.
The U.S. researchers said closely-spaced pregnancies increased the risk that a baby missed out on nutrients – particularly folate, needed during pregnancy.
‘However, other possible mechanisms, such as maternal levels of iron and polyunsaturated fatty acids or stress should also be considered,’ they said.
They stressed that they had found a link between shorter pregnancy gaps and autism, but had not shown cause and effect.
Families may be experiencing an unknown factor that increases the risk of autism and shortens the gaps between pregnancies.
Dr Patrick O’Brien, a consultant and spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said women had been advised for a long time to leave a gap of at least one year between pregnancies.
‘People shouldn’t get too scared because the absolute risk of autism in this study remains very low – even when the gap between pregnancies is less than a year,’ he said.
‘However, for various reasons – and now it seems the risk of autism – it makes sense to delay getting pregnant with your second baby for at least a year.’
A spokesman for the National Autistic Society said: ‘While studies like this may help shed light on potential causes, it is important to note that we see thousands of cases where either the first born child or subsequent children born more than 12 months later have a diagnosis of autism.’
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