What is Perinatal Encephalopathy?

Whether you are just entering the referral stage of Russian adoption or if you have already visited your little one/s and learned of this diagnosis on their medical record it can be a scary one. However, it does not have to be. It is well known in the Russian adoption medical field that this is a common medical diagnosis and that most of the children who have this on their medical record do very well and do not have a neurological problem.

At first glance the diagnosis is scary because it actually sounds as if the child has neurological damage. In most cases this particular diagnosis is given to an infant who had an unusual birth or when the birth mother does something during pregnancy to affect neurological status.

In most Russian orphanages the frequency of the diagnosis is high enough that the diagnosis is meaningless (as high as 95%).

In an article on international medical information Dr. Dana Johnson states that perinatal encephalopathy is an ominous condition which denotes a child at high risk of cerebral palsy and mental retardation but that Russian records indicate that any infant that was stressed during child birth would carry that diagnosis.