In the third world, cerebral palsy evidences itself postneonatally far more than in the developed countries of the north.  Its effects are as extreme with similar mortality expectations up to five years old.  Cerebral infection (often meningitis) and febrile convulsions (caused by fever, often from malaria) are common causes in infants.  Later in childhood, head injury appears more frequently as a cause.

As noted on the Postnatal Causes section of the site, there are clear differences between the rates of cerebral palsy among racial groups in the United States and in South Africa.  These differences provide evidence of some of the features of the evolution of cerebral palsy over the last 100 years, with neonatal forms providing a larger percentage of total cases in the developed world, and postnatal cases supplying a larger percentage in the developing world.

Several causal pathways that lead to cerebral palsy involve preventable actions.  In cultures where the struggle for the basic necessities are the preoccupation of an uneducated population, a lack of iodine in the diet, exposure to common infective agents, Rh incompatibility, malnutrition, and the mother's exposure to mind-altering toxins all contribute to higher rates of cerebral palsy than will later be the case, when the cultures become familiar with the outcomes of various positive actions.

A 1990 study measured social class by noting the father’s occupation and determined that the higher the social class, the less congenital-related cerebral palsy occurred.  Children of disadvantaged, single mothers showed the highest rates of cerebral palsy.

Arens, L.J., Molteno, C. D. (1989) “A comparative study of postnatally-acquired cerebral palsy in Cape Town.” Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 31, 246-254.

Blair, E., Stanley, F. (1982) “An Epidemiological study of cerebral palsy in Western Australia, 1956-1975. III: Postnatal aetiology.” Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 24, 575-585.

Cooke, T.; Pharoah, P.; and Rosenbloom, L.  “Acquired Cerebral Palsy.”  Archives of Disease in Childhood 64 (1989):1013-16.

Hart, Hilary M., ed.  Clinics in Developmental Medicine.  London:  Mac Keith Press.   Alberman, Eva; Blair, Eve; and Stanley, Fiona.  Cerebral Palsies: Epidemiology and Causal Pathways.  London:  Cambridge University Press, 2000.  (The book is part of a series of hardcover monographs published by Mac Keith Press.  Four new ones are published each year.  The distributor is Cambridge University Press.)