From rejections to letters, screenplays, and novels. This is no longer a
mere "viewpoint" on the brain disorder that I believe results in autism. I have
come to view the obstetric practice of clamping the umbilical cord before the
first breath as a medical error. Why do obstetric practitioners respond in
silence to requests for evidence on which they base their protocols?
4. Personal Motivation and Approach
1 - Conrad
Conrad's older brother also had a traumatic birth, and sustained a large
cephalhematoma prominent on the right side of his head for most of his first
year. He was late learning to roll over, sit up, stand, and walk, but he was
potty-trained by eighteen months, and learned to read when he was two
years and two months old. It looked like he had outgrown all of his early
developmental problems, but hyperactive behavior remained along with poor
manual dexterity; and, as predicted by a child neurologist, he is not in
adulthood quite the person he might have been.
2 - Ralf
My son, Conrad, was a child with classic Kanner autism. He had a traumatic
birth and required resuscitation before he began to breathe on his own.
Despite much worry, his motor development was normal. His nursery school
teacher recognized his abnormal language development and encouraged us
to have him assessed by a psychiatrist.
Two younger brothers developed normally, and as adults are fully
independent, productive citizens. The stigma of researchers trying to find
signs of the "broader autism phenotype" (BAP) has led both brothers to
dissociate themselves completely from any kind of involvement with autism.
3 - Family
4 - Approach