The effect of intrauterine hypoxia on the child surviving to 4 years.

Intrauterine hypoxia/asphyxia is an unchallenged cause of perinatal death, but whether sublethal degrees of hypoxia result frequently in brain damage in surviving infants is less certain. To test this hypothesis, obstetric patients with abruptio placentae, placenta previa, and prolapse of the umbilical cord were computer matched on several factors with normal control patients to determine the degree of risk of lower 4 year Stanford-Binet I. Q. scores or abnormalities on the 4 year fine motor and gross motor testings. The mean I. Q. score of babies born of mothers with one of these complications was no different from that of the normal controls. Similarly negative results were recorded on the 4 year fine motor and gross motor testings. Children of low birth weight in either group experienced lower I. Q. scores and higher risk of abnormal findings on the motor tests at 4 years than the babies of mature birth weight. Intrauterine hypoxia/asphyxia apparently is not a major cause of neurologic dysfunction in the surviving child.