By: Ronit Molko

Like many pregnant women, I spent a lot of time during my first pregnancy worrying about whether my child would have autism or down’s syndrome, as those were the developmental disorders most commonly seen and talked about. I was working at the Neuropsychiatric Institute at UCLA at the time and the psychiatrist who was supervising my work sat me down one day in front of a large book about developmental and genetic disorders and told me that if I was going to spend my time worrying, I should give equal time to every possible thing that could go wrong for my unborn baby. I realized at that moment, that instead of riding the wave of this state of panic that is so easily encouraged in our society, I could change my own attitude and focus on helping to shift the fears and ideals of our population to something more authentic, proactive and meaningful.
Continue reading “AUTISM AWARENESS MONTH”