The Effects of Stroke at Birth

Although strokes are commonly associated with adults, they can occur in newborns during the birth process or in utero. Neonatal strokes can be ischemic, meaning a blood clot reduces blood flow to an area of the brain, or hemorrhagic, meaning bleeding occurs within the brain. Around 25 in 10,000 newborns suffer strokes, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) states. Causes of neonatal stroke include congenital heart defects, blood disorders, asphyxia, trauma and infection. The effects of neonatal stoke can impact a child for life.
Seizures in the newborn period most often first draw attention to the possibility of stroke, lead author K.B. Nelson of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke reports in Lancet Neurology in a March 2004 article entitled “Stroke in newborn infants.” Seizure activity in neonates may not be as easily identified as it is in older children and adults. Symptoms of seizures related to neonatal stroke include stiffening or tightening of muscles, bicycling motions, apnea, periods of no breathing and twitching followed by period of relaxation, neurologist Gabrielle de Veber, M.D., director of the Children’s Stroke Program at the Hospital for Sick Children, states. Emory University reports that labor and delivery are often uneventful and that symptoms don’t appear for the first 12 to 48 hours. Seizure medication reduces the frequency of seizure activity. Epileptic seizures may continue to occur and require treatment in childhood as a long term complication of neonatal stroke, according to the Hospital for Sick Children.
Cerebral Palsy

According to Pediatric Stroke, perinatal arterial ischemia related to stroke in the three days surrounding birth accounts for 50 to 70 percent of congenital hemiplegic cerebral palsy, or cerebral palsy which affects one side of the body only. Cerebral palsy, a permanent motor disorder, may go unrecognized after neonatal stroke for four to six months, when an infant shows signs of weakness on one side or uses only one side of the body, CHOP reports.