I believe many mothers have heard such a saying:
Babies who give birth naturally are smarter than babies who give birth by caesarean section.
Admittedly, the baby’s intellectual development is the most concerned thing for every family. However, if this matter is related to the delivery process, it has become a heavy [burden] for the parturients, further restricting the choices of the parturients.
So, is it true that babies who give birth naturally are smarter than babies who give birth by caesarean section?
Babies who give birth smoothly are smarter?
Let’s first look at two sets of objective and true research data:
An Iranian study studied 372 normally born newborns and divided them into normal delivery group (189 cases) and cesarean section group (189 cases) according to different delivery methods.
The results showed that after correcting the factors such as parents’ age and education level, there was no significant difference in IQ scores between the two groups of children aged 6-7 with different delivery methods.
Domestic researchers have studied 217 children aged 3-6 years old in China. According to different delivery methods, they are divided into normal delivery group, social factor cesarean section group and medical factor cesarean section group. PPVT intelligence screening is carried out on the 3 groups of children.
The results also showed that there was no significant difference in IQ screening among the three groups.
Both professional studies have confirmed that the mode of delivery will not affect the baby’s intellectual development.
Isn’t it said that the baby’s head will be squeezed and the brain sulcus will go deeper during natural labor, thus becoming smarter?
There will be squeezing, but it has nothing to do with getting smarter.
In general, due to the baby’s skull gap is quite large, in the normal natural labor process, due to the birth canal extrusion, the head will be elongated or extrusion deformation. However, this deformation is within the acceptable range and will recover on its own after birth.
The short-term compression of the birth canal during normal natural labor will not have any effect on the formed sulcus and gyrus of the newborn, and there is no evidence that compression will affect synaptic connections between nerve cells.
Anesthesia Can Make Caesarean Baby Stupid?
Many mothers will worry that caesarean section requires anesthesia, which will affect the baby’s brain, and then think it is a matter of course to endure pain.
A multi-center professional study in the United States investigated 5,320 children born from 1976 to 1982, 497 of whom underwent cesarean section (193 cases under general anesthesia and 304 cases under local anesthesia).
The results showed that at the age of 19, compared with natural delivery, there was no difference in the incidence of learning and cognitive impairment in adulthood among newborns born after general anesthesia or regional anesthesia during cesarean section.
In other words, short-term anesthesia exposure during delivery has little effect on the development of the baby’s nervous system and will not make the baby stupid.
Moreover, the choice of mode of production is based on a comprehensive judgment of the physical conditions of the parturient and prenatal fetal supervision.
Will what Factors Affect Baby’s Intelligence Development?
Factors affecting baby’s intelligence development mainly include congenital factors and acquired factors.
- Congenital factors are the basic factors that affect the growth and development of babies. Acquired factors include nutrients, social and environmental factors, family social status and economic status, etc.
Among them, the social environment includes living environment, social environment, etc. These environmental factors have an impact on children’s intellectual development and behavior from an early age, and gradually strengthen with the growth of children’s age.
For example, in infancy, giving the baby tactile, visual, auditory and motor stimulation through social environment can promote synaptic connections between brain nerve cells, thus promoting the development of the central nervous system.
Family social status and economic status are also one of the factors that affect the baby’s intelligence. Parents are the first imitation object of the baby. Parents’ behavior directly affects the baby’s behavior and plays a subtle role in the baby’s intelligence development.
For a child’s life, innate genes are of course important, but acquired cultivation is the more important factor that determines how far he can go.