Cerebral palsy and neonatal seizures are both conditions that affect a baby’s brain, but they are not the same thing. Neonatal seizures are episodes of abnormal electrical activity in the brain that occur in the first 28 days of life. Cerebral palsy is a long term condition that affects movement and posture due to a non progressive injury or difference in the developing brain.
The key point is that cerebral palsy does not directly “develop” from seizures themselves. Instead, both neonatal seizures and cerebral palsy often come from the same underlying brain problem. In other words, seizures in a newborn can be a warning sign that the brain has been injured or is not developing typically. That injury can later show up as cerebral palsy, epilepsy, learning difficulties, or a mix of these.
Neonatal seizures are usually described as “provoked” by something else, such as lack of oxygen around the time of birth (called hypoxic ischemic injury), bleeding in the brain, stroke, infection, metabolic problems, or certain genetic conditions. The Fetal Neonatal Neurology Program at Boston Children’s Hospital explains that when babies suffer hypoxia ischemia, they can develop brain injuries that may later cause serious neurological problems such as cerebral palsy or epilepsy https://www.childrenshospital.org/services/fetal-neonatal-neurology-program/research-innovation. In many of these babies, seizures are one of the earliest signs that this type of brain injury has occurred.
Recent research has followed children who had acute provoked neonatal seizures and then checked how they were doing at 5 to 6 years of age. A large multicenter study found that nearly two thirds of these children had typical overall development by school age, which shows that seizures in the newborn period do not always lead to severe long term disabilities https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41482857/ and https://scholarlyworks.lvhn.org/pediatrics/3838. However, the same study reported that some children did develop conditions such as cerebral palsy, epilepsy, or broader problems with thinking, adaptive skills, behavior, or executive function. In that research, having cerebral palsy at school age was actually one of the strongest predictors of more severe, multi domain developmental impairment later on https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41482857/.
So how should parents understand the link between neonatal seizures and cerebral palsy?
1. Neonatal seizures are a red flag, not a guarantee
When a newborn has seizures, doctors know there is a higher risk of later neurodevelopmental problems compared with babies who never had seizures. That risk includes cerebral palsy, epilepsy, learning challenges, and behavioral or executive function issues. At the same time, the study mentioned above shows that many children go on to develop normally, especially if the underlying brain injury is mild or well managed https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41482857/.
This means neonatal seizures should be taken very seriously, but they do not automatically mean a child will have cerebral palsy. The long term outcome depends more on the cause, location, and severity of the brain problem than on the seizures alone.
2. The underlying brain injury is the main cause of cerebral palsy
Cerebral palsy usually results from a disturbance in the developing brain that happens before birth, during labor and delivery, or shortly after birth. Factors that increase the risk include lack of oxygen, premature birth, infections, brain bleeds, and stroke, as well as genetic causes that affect how the brain forms and functions https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01942638.2025.2608156?af=R and https://www.genedx.com/providers/indications/cerebral-palsy.
Historically, it was often assumed that complications during birth were the main cause of cerebral palsy. Newer research shows that birth asphyxia accounts for less than 10 percent of cases, and that up to one third of children with cerebral palsy actually have an identifiable genetic cause https://www.genedx.com/providers/indications/cerebral-palsy. Some of these same genetic and structural brain conditions can also cause neonatal seizures.
So when a baby has seizures in the newborn period and later is diagnosed with cerebral palsy, both problems often trace back to the same root cause in the brain, rather than one condition causing the other.
3. Seizures can still add to the risk if they are frequent or difficult to control
Even though the main injury usually comes first, ongoing seizures can stress the developing brain. Repeated or prolonged seizures, especially if not well controlled, may worsen existing injury or interfere with normal development. This is one reason why early recognition and prompt treatment of neonatal seizures is important. Research using tools to better monitor newborn brain activity, such as the “swimming cap” technology being studied in Cambridge, aims to detect brain injury earlier and guide treatment to improve long term outcomes and potentially reduce the risk of conditions like cerebral palsy and epilepsy https://www.cerebralpalsyguide.com/blog/new-swimming-cap-early-diagnosis-of-cerebral-palsy-in-infants.
4. Cerebral palsy and seizures often occur together
Many children with cerebral palsy also experience seizures or develop epilepsy later in childhood. Estimates vary, but some sources suggest that roughly 15 percent to 60 percent of children with cerebral palsy have seizures, especially those with more severe motor problems such as spastic quadriplegia or extensive brain injury { lazyloadBackgroundObserver.observe( lazyloadBackground ); } ); }; const events = [ 'DOMContentLoaded', 'elementor/lazyload/observe', ]; events.forEach( ( event ) => { document.addEventListener( event, lazyloadRunObserver ); } );