Effect of Cesarean Section on Children’s Sensory Perception
Sensory perception refers to the processing by the human brain of objective sensory inputs that have been transduced by the sensory organs. Such perception is the basis for all the advanced psychological processes, which are of great significance for individual development. Research has indicated that, compared with natural childbirth, Cesarean section has negative impacts on children’s senses of smell, touch, and visual ability.
Varendi et al. (2002) studied the impact of Cesarean section on infants’ olfactory performance among 31 individuals who received Cesarean section, 15 of whom underwent uterine contraction before Cesarean section and 16 of whom did not experience uterine contraction. The two groups of newborn babies were exposed to a certain odor for 30 min after birth. They were then exposed to familiar and novel smells on both sides of their faces 80 h later. The experimental materials used were two odorant-saturated gauzes. Infants’ responses to the odorants were videotaped. Neonates who had experienced contractions showed a preference for familiar scents, while newborns who did not experience contractions did not have this preference; that is, the latter could not recognize the familiar scent. This suggests that contractions may promote the newborn child’s olfactory learning ability. However, in this study, a non-Cesarean section group was not assessed. Therefore, there were limitations regarding the sampling.
Through two decades of clinical observations, Mao and Jing (2005) found that newborns delivered via Cesarean section did not like to be touched or hugged as compared with newborns delivered via natural childbirth. The neonates expressed stress regarding physical contact with their mothers. Furthermore, emergency Cesarean section operations had a greater impact on neonates’ sense of touch compared to those born by planned Cesarean section. Children born through emergency Cesarean section were prone to tactile resistance due to the experience of birth trauma.
Approximately 80% of sensory information that humans process is visual in nature, and visuospatial perception is of great importance for the development of children’s learning abilities. Huang et al. (2005) adopted the Benton Visual Retention Test to assess the visuospatial perception of children in the third and fourth grades of school who had been born by Cesarean section due to social factors or born by vaginal delivery. The two groups were balanced in terms of school, age, gender, family, and other factors. The results showed that these children were less able to reproduce figures compared to a group of children born by vaginal delivery; that is, the visual memory and visuospatial perception abilities of the former group were poorer than those of the latter group. Additionally, among the various types of errors made on the Benton Visual Retention Test, the average number of errors made by the Cesarean section group was significantly higher than that of the control group. This indicates that the visuospatial perception ability of children in the Cesarean section group was poorer than that of the control group.
Effect of Cesarean Section on Children’s Sensory Integration
Sensory integration refers to the ability of individuals to utilize sensory information from different parts of the body and to respond to these sensory inputs appropriately. Sensory integration plays a crucial role in children’s learning ability and social adaptability. Studies have found that the sensory integration ability of children born by Cesarean section is worse than that of children born by natural childbirth (Bu et al., 2008; Kong et al., 2009; Tian, 2009; Yuan et al., 2009). Tian (2009) also found that children born by Cesarean section due to medical factors and Cesarean section due to medical factors both showed poorer sensory integration ability than children born by natural childbirth.
Overall, the results indicate that Cesarean section has negative impacts on children’s senses of smell, touch, and vision and on sensory integration abilities. However, few studies have considered the effects of Cesarean section on children’s perceptual abilities; research on this topic needs to be further strengthened.
psychological effects of c-section in babies?
