Cerebral Palsy?

by Zev Gershon MD, JD specializes in Cerebral Palsy cases.
What is cerebral palsy? Cerebral palsy is a motor disorder, a muscle disorder that can occur either before birth, during labor and delivery or after birth. Most of cerebral palsy occurs before birth. The small part that occurs during labor and delivery and the cases that occur after birth are less than the total number that occur before birth.

Cerebral palsy should be distinguished from developmental disorders which sometimes accompany cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is a motor disorder that affects the body, a neurological disorder which is usually static. That means a person has it and is stuck with it, it doesn't progress and develop over time. There are also different types if cerebral palsy that can affect different parts of the body, depending upon which part of the brain is affected. Whereas a developmental disorder occurs when a child doesn't meet their milestones and can include some of the cognitive parts of the brain, the thinking, the reasoning, etc. Some kids who have bad developmental disorders can be labeled mentally challenged or mentally retarded or delayed.

These are some of the subjects to be addressed when discussing cerebral palsy. It only occurs in about 2 out of every 1,000 birth, 0.02 % of the population. We are going to be talking about some of the ways to avoid having cerebral palsy in that small percentage of cases that occur during labor and delivery.