Autism is the mum’s fault.
We are emotionally cold ‘refrigerator mothers’.
All cold and frosty with no warmth.
We’re like prison camp guards who have dysfunctional relationships with our children.
That’s why they’re autistic.
Shocking hey?!
Since autism was first clearly defined in the 1940s, and in the decades that followed, these were some of the main reasons identified as what causes autism.
This lamentable legacy lasted for many decades. The mother was to blame.
Thank goodness this is no longer the case! Although I still think autism mums (very wrongly!) carry a lot of the autism guilt. The feeling that it’s something we did or didn’t do during our pregnancy – too stressed, or didn’t take the right multivitamins.
Over the years, autism has been attributed to many causes – most of them wrong.
Vaccines (specifically the MMR one).
Diet.
A contagious infection.
Toxic parenting.
But, in one of the largest studies to date, which involved more than 2 million participants globally, the results were astounding.
The truth is, there is still no single known cause of autism.
Genetic factors accounted for 80% of the risk factors.
Whilst environmental factors accounted for just 20%.
And in a victory for women everywhere – the study also found the role of maternal factors to be “nonexistent or minimal” in causing autism.
PS – Let’s rename ‘refrigerator mums’ to ‘oven mums’ – Mums who raise their children in warm, toasty nests of love. That’s the reality of all the autism mums I know. 💖 🐣