Introduction:
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD), evident from an early age, are neurodevelopmental disorders defined by deficits in the individual's communication, socialization and cognitive abilities. An increasing number of children receive ASD diagnoses every year worldwide. The initial causes may be related to defective genes, chromosomal abnormalities, medical conditions, infectious viruses, prenatal stressors and environmental factors during the prenatal or early postnatal period, which may interfere with the development of certain brain systems affecting the normal functioning of the central nervous system.

Material and Methods:
A search was conducted using Web of Science, Scopus, MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane Library as electronic databases. We included observational studies evaluating the perinatal history of mothers of children aged between 18 months to 5 years with a diagnosis of ASD. Categorical variables were assessed using odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI), whereas for continuous variables, the results were expressed as mean difference with their 95% CI.

Results:
Maternal prenatal pathologies, usually treated medically such as infections, antibiotic therapy, diabetes, mental illness, PCOS, fertility problems and epilepsy, are probably associated with ASD. Maternal obesity, asthma, hypothyroidism, substance abuse and celiac disease may be associated with ASD. ASD has been significantly associated with neonatal health, infection, suffocation, and complications.

Conclusions:
The rising cost of rehabilitation for people with ASD has become a serious social problem. The occurrence of ASD is multifactorial and may indicate statistical significance. Through the results, perinatal care professionals, mainly midwives, will learn maternal risk factors prenatal and perinatal to control the disease's ever-increasing prevalence and support the family with a child suffering from ASD.