Pregnancy tips Pregnancy and Hypothyroidism: Vision Problems In Babies

It seems that the thyroid gland is not only a critical piece of getting pregnant and staying pregnant, but it's proper functioning is also important for the health of your unborn baby. Here is an article that discusses how maternal hypothyroidism can affect the baby's vision:

Cause Of Visual Problems Among Children Of Hypothyroid Mothers Found (www.medicalnewstoday.com)

From the article:

Children of women with hypothyroidism an under active thyroid who had elevated thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy, had a significantly reduced ability to see visual contrasts, compared to women with hypothyroidism with normal TSH levels during the first two trimesters, and pregnant women with normal thyroid levels, according to a new study being presented on Thursday, Oct. 4, at the 78th Annual Meeting of the American Thyroid Association (ATA) in New York. Adequate contrast sensitivity is an important ability for reading, viewing information of low contrast such as maps, and visuospatial ability in general.

The study shows that visual processing problems among infants of women with hypothyroidism were directly correlated with the mothers' high level of TSH. These findings suggest that thyroid hormone is critical in early pregnancy for normal development of visual processing abilities.

A previous study showed that infants born to women who had hypothyroidism diagnosed prior to or during pregnancy had reduced ability to see visual contrasts and that the severity of their deficit was related to how hypothyroid their mothers were during the pregnancy. This research was based on an electrophysiological task where children saw bars that swept from low to high levels of contrast at a slow speed.
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