<p>I don't know if there has been any research on this, but there is reason to doubt that such research would yield any meaningful results.</p>

<p>You would need to control for a large number of things to address your question. For example, people born by C-section are people who have access to medical care. Those people have money, which is associated with education and opportunities, both of which are associated with IQ.</p>

<p>Additionally, a C-section is medical intervention for when something goes wrong. The things that lead to C-sections (such as improper positioning of the baby before birth, compromising oxygen supply) can lead to brain damage. C-sections generally are associated with many more complications than healthy vaginal births.</p>

<p>Another thing to consider is that vaginal birth would be a poor evolutionary solution for human reproduction if it lead to significantly lower intelligence.</p>

<p>I would be much less surprised if the opposite of your hypothesis turned out to be true.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-28T20:52:12.610Z
Also note how resilient baby brains are: you can sometimes get away with having an entire hemisphere missing! The developing brain accommodates/routes around all kinds of damage. That can scramble the `normal' locations for things like language centers, but often there's little or no impact on the 'shifted' abilities, especially if the damage occurred young enough. A bit of a squeeze at literally the moment of birth is pretty small beer from the brain's perspective.
steveLangsford
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-30T12:28:06.870Z
Yes, very good point.
PhiloT
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-28T15:47:02.587Z
2018-05-28T15:47:02.587Z
PhiloT
<p>Has there been any research comparing the cognition of people born via C-section to people born vaginally? </p>

<p>During a vaginal birth, the baby's head is pressured and deforms somewhat in order to make it through. Hypothetically, this could cause some minor brain damage which would be avoided by C-section birth.</p>

<measurement><experimental-psychology>
Cognition of people born by C-section vs born ordinarily?
Colin
# Cognition of people born by C-section vs born ordinarily?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-05-28)

Has there been any research comparing the cognition of people born via C-section to people born vaginally?

During a vaginal birth, the baby's head is pressured and deforms somewhat in order to make it through. Hypothetically, this could cause some minor brain damage which would be avoided by C-section birth.

**Tags:** measurement, experimental-psychology


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-05-28. Score: 1

I don't know if there has been any research on this, but there is reason to doubt that such research would yield any meaningful results.

You would need to control for a large number of things to address your question. For example, people born by C-section are people who have access to medical care. Those people have money, which is associated with education and opportunities, both of which are associated with IQ.

Additionally, a C-section is medical intervention for when something goes wrong. The things that lead to C-sections (such as improper positioning of the baby before birth, compromising oxygen supply) can lead to brain damage. C-sections generally are associated with many more complications than healthy vaginal births.

Another thing to consider is that vaginal birth would be a poor evolutionary solution for human reproduction if it lead to significantly lower intelligence.

I would be much less surprised if the opposite of your hypothesis turned out to be true.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Also note how resilient baby brains are: you can sometimes get away with having an entire hemisphere missing! The developing brain accommodates/routes around all kinds of damage. That can scramble the `normal' locations for things like language centers, but often there's little or no impact on the 'shifted' abilities, especially if the damage occurred young enough. A bit of a squeeze at literally the moment of birth is pretty small beer from the brain's perspective.  
> **username_1**: Yes, very good point.  

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