NIH and the advocacy group Autism Speaks are enrolling 1,200 pregnant women who have other children with autism spectrum disorders to participate in a large study that aims to identify early signs of the condition and its possible causes … Women who participate in the study … will be monitored throughout their pregnancies, and their infants will be monitored until age three …

The study will focus on women who already have one child with an autism spectrum disorder because such women have a higher chance of having another child with the condition. … “By studying families who are already affected by autism, we feel we have the best chance at learning how genetics and environmental factors could work together to cause autism.” ….

WHEN Cher Sievey gave birth to her baby daughter Ophelia she decided to do things a little differently.

Not only did she choose a homebirth without a midwife but she chose not to cut the umbilical cord.

It’s a practice known as Lotus Birth, when the placenta and cord remain attached to the baby until the cord detaches naturally, usually after three to five days.

Cher, 28, and her partner Will Thielker live in Brimscombe with their older daughter Aurora, five, and 13-month–old Ophelia. They will be moving to Wales at the end of the month to establish an Instinctual Living Retreat focusing on pregnancy and birth.

“Lotus Birth allows babies to receive all of their blood, oxygen and nutrients through what is known as the placental transfusion …

“There is iron-rich blood in the placenta that the baby doesn’t access until after the birth. When Aurora was born her cord was cut after 30 seconds, so she didn’t receive all her blood volume.” ….