The causes of ASD are a contentious subject and there are many possibilities. My mum suspects that my AS was partially caused by the fact that I stopped growing in the womb at 5 months gestation. She was under a lot of stress as her mum had terminal cancer and died shortly after I was born. My mum was not eating well and on top of this she had to console her dad who lived in LA at the time. He liked to go for long walks in the mountains and my mum accompanied him, experiencing the negative effects of high-altitude.
When it was shown on the scan that I had stopped growing, the Consultant recommended an early birth by caesarean section, but my mum wanted a natural birth. Bed-rest was then advised and luckily I soon began to grow again. I was born just after my due date, weighing in at only 5 pounds 4 ounces. I was small and thin. I am a naturally small person and both my parents are small, but I should have been about 6 pounds at birth. Could this have contributed to my ASD? Asperger's does not run in my family in any serious way, although I have two second cousins who are on the spectrum and I can certainly identify oddities in some of my family members.
