Maternal anemia is linked to several problems in pregnancy and birth, but it is not considered a direct, single cause of cerebral palsy in newborns. Instead, anemia can increase the risk of complications that may raise the chances of brain injury, which in some cases can later show up as cerebral palsy.
To understand this better, it helps to break the question into smaller parts: what maternal anemia is, what cerebral palsy is, and how problems in pregnancy and birth might connect them.
Maternal anemia and what it does
Maternal anemia means that a pregnant woman has too few healthy red blood cells or too little hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. When a mother is anemic, less oxygen may be available for her tissues and, in more serious cases, for the baby as well.
Iron deficiency anemia is the most common type during pregnancy. Low iron can be due to poor diet, closely spaced pregnancies, heavy menstrual bleeding before pregnancy, or infections and chronic illness. Severe untreated anemia can contribute to:
• Maternal fatigue, weakness, and poor ability to tolerate blood loss during delivery
• Higher risk of preterm birth and low birth weight
• Higher chance of problems such as preeclampsia or infections in some settings
Some studies have also found that maternal iron deficiency anemia is associated with worse outcomes if a newborn is already sick. One hospital-based study of newborns with perinatal asphyxia (a type of oxygen shortage around the time of birth) found that maternal iron deficiency anemia was an independent predictor of newborn death, along with factors such as cord prolapse and high blood pressure in pregnancy.https://www.springermedizin.de/predictors-of-mortality-among-newborns-admitted-with-perinatal-a/19340068 This kind of research suggests that anemia can make bad situations worse, especially when the baby is already under stress.
What cerebral palsy is
Cerebral palsy is a long term condition that affects movement, posture, and sometimes speech and learning. It results from damage to or abnormal development of the brain, usually before birth, during birth, or in the first years of life, when the brain is still developing.
The main known risk factors for cerebral palsy include:
• Extreme prematurity
• Very low birth weight
• Severe lack of oxygen to the brain (hypoxic ischemic injury) around the time of birth
• Certain infections in pregnancy
• Severe jaundice in the newborn period
• Brain bleeding, especially in very preterm infants
Intraventricular hemorrhage, a type of bleeding inside the brain’s fluid spaces, is one example. It is more common in preterm babies and is linked to later neurodevelopmental problems such as cognitive difficulties and cerebral palsy.https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2842660 In other words, cerebral palsy is about brain injury or abnormal brain development, and many different pathways can lead to that injury.
How anemia might be involved
There is no single large, definitive study that says maternal anemia by itself directly causes cerebral palsy. Instead, researchers look at chains of events where anemia may play a role. Some of the most important possible links are:
1. Reduced oxygen reserves
When a mother is anemic, her blood carries less oxygen. In day to day life, her body often adapts. But during labor, blood loss, or complications like preeclampsia, the combination of anemia and stress might make it harder to keep enough oxygen flowing to the baby’s brain. This could increase the risk of perinatal asphyxia, which is one of the clearest known pathways to brain injury and cerebral palsy.
The study of newborns with perinatal asphyxia that identified maternal iron deficiency anemia as a predictor of mortality suggests that when oxygen shortage already exists, anemia in the mother may worsen the baby’s outcome.https://www.springermedizin.de/predictors-of-mortality-among-newborns-admitted-with-perinatal-a/19340068 While that study focused on death rather than cerebral palsy, the same kind of brain injury that can lead to death in severe cases can lead to cerebral palsy in survivors.
2. Greater risk of preterm birth and low birth weight
Maternal anemia is associated in many reports with a higher chance of preterm birth and low birth weight. Extremely preterm infants in particular have much higher rates of brain bleeding, white matter injury, and later cerebral palsy. Research from very preterm infant cohorts shows that cerebral palsy is more common among children born at very low gestational ages, especially below 28 weeks.https://neonatal.rti.org/pdf/NRNBibliography.pdf Anemia is one of many maternal factors that may contribute to babies being born this early.
3. Fetal and newborn anemia
Fetal or newborn anemia can arise from several causes, such as hemolytic disease of the newborn, blood loss, or infections. Hemolytic disease occurs when the mother’s immune system destroys fetal red blood cells, leading to severe fetal anemia.https://www.uofmhealth.org/our-care/specialties-services/hemolytic-disease-newborn-hdn Serious fetal anemia can cause heart failure, swelling, and poor oxygen delivery to the brain. These conditions raise the risk of brain injury, though they are distinct from simple iron deficiency anemia in the mother.
So while maternal anemia and newborn anemia are not identical problems, they both touch on oxygen and nutrient delivery to the brain, which is central to the pathways that can end in cerebral palsy.
4. Iron, brain development, and bleeding risks
Iron is not only needed for red blood cells. It also plays a crucial role in brain development, including myelination, neurotransmitter production, and energy use in brain cells. Inadequate iron stores in infancy are linked in multiple studies to long term cognitive and behavioral issues.
Practices such as delayed cord clamping at birth can increase a baby’s iron stores and lower the risk of iron deficiency anemia in infancy. { lazyloadBackgroundObserver.observe( lazyloadBackground ); } ); }; const events = [ 'DOMContentLoaded', 'elementor/lazyload/observe', ]; events.forEach( ( event ) => { document.addEventListener( event, lazyloadRunObserver ); } );