C-Section Babies Have More Potentially Infectious Gut Bacteria (sciencedaily.com) 28
Scientists from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, UCL, the University of Birmingham and their collaborators discovered that whereas vaginally born babies got most of their gut bacteria from their mother, babies born via caesarean did not, and instead had more bacteria associated with hospital environments in their guts. Science Daily reports: The exact role of the baby's gut bacteria is unclear and it isn't known if these differences at birth will have any effect on later health. The researchers found the differences in gut bacteria between vaginally born and caesarean delivered babies largely evened out by 1 year old, but large follow-up studies are needed to determine if the early differences influence health outcomes. Experts from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists say that these findings should not deter women from having a caesarean birth.
Published in Nature today, this largest ever study of neonatal microbiomes also revealed that the microbiome of vaginally delivered newborns did not come from the mother's vaginal bacteria, but from the mother's gut. This calls into question the controversial practice of swabbing babies born via caesarean with mother's vaginal bacteria. Understanding how the birth process impacts on the baby's microbiome will enable future research into bacterial therapies.
Published in Nature today, this largest ever study of neonatal microbiomes also revealed that the microbiome of vaginally delivered newborns did not come from the mother's vaginal bacteria, but from the mother's gut. This calls into question the controversial practice of swabbing babies born via caesarean with mother's vaginal bacteria. Understanding how the birth process impacts on the baby's microbiome will enable future research into bacterial therapies.
Glad I don't remember any of it. (Score:3)
It sounds gross, but an important part of building your immune system when you are born is getting coated with the bacterial from your mom's vag. I thought that ob/gyn protocol had long since been modified to do that as an after-birth procedure for C-section. Anyone know the status of that?
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Vote Bernie in 2020. For free healthcare. For women's rights. #BERNIE2020
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Not too forget, how close to your birth she was last ridden, you'll get some or many other people's as well ;).
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Re: Glad I don't remember any of it. (Score:2)
Well the implication of TFS is that when the mother gives birth, she also accidentally takes a shit on the baby.
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Well the implication of TFS is that when the mother gives birth, she also accidentally takes a shit on the baby.
It's impossible to push a baby out without shitting yourself. The shit gets squeezed out like toothpaste from a tube as the baby descends into the birth canal. Midwives have seen it all before and get rid of quickly, but there's certainly gut/faecal bacteria in the mix when a baby is born vaginally.
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It sounds gross
It does? OK...
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Had one c-section baby and one not. C-section baby had major digestive pains for 3 months, and it got slightly better from months 3 to 6. After 6 months he was a much happier baby.
The vaginally born kid was 100% happy from day one, never cried, always slept easily.
Both kids in pre-teen years now and totally healthy, other than c-section boy sometimes has allergies. But the allergies have gotten better every year, and I bet it is because we refuse to give anti-allergy medicine except maybe twice when he was
Fecal transplant? (Score:2)
Do one off the bat, right?
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Didn't read to the end of the summary? The bacteria isn't from the vagina. It's from the gut. Yes, they've been swabbing ceasarian babies with vaginal bacteria. No, that's not the right place to get the swab.
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Somewhere, I believe a program actually on ill affects on antibiotics, it was mentioned that in Sweden they were experimenting with wiping a cloth on vagina then babies face after a c-section.
The gist of the program was the importance of gut bacteria and problems caused by antibiotics and that antibiotics should be considered the nuclear option, only if actually needed, not for every snivel. Also was pointed out that the average American child was given antibiotics about 3 times as often as the average Swed
IANAB, but... (Score:2)
I am no biologist, but it sure seems to me that when it comes to DNA and bacteria, this stuff just ends up smooshing together.
My biology classes taught me it was all straight lines, that it was all cause and effect. It doesn't seem that easy from what I read. Like Here [newsweek.com]
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What my father gave me more than anything else is great tutoring and a great brain, frankly. -- Donald Trump
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I think you've pointed out a huge disservice the education system is doing to future scientists and clinicians. In science class it's all simple cause and effect. In the real world it's a swirling mess.
Physics experiments are a pile of noise requiring good statistics to pull out signals. Biology is a bazillion things happening at the same time. And anything medical adds in placebo and observer effects that are often orders of magnitude bigger than what y
Natural child birth (Score:1)
Is that still legal?
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Not in Alabama
the question on everyone's lips... (Score:2)
We're half-bacteria cells anyway (Score:2)
I read a paper by a doctor that said one of the best things you could do for a newborn's health is roll it around on the delivery room floor before swaddling it.
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And that right there is how you end up with a kid whose gut biome contains all sorts of fun Clostridium species. Just saying. :-)
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Vaginal vs. gut (Score:2)
I'm neither a woman nor an obgyn but I would be astonished if vaginal bacteria have much to do with gut bacteria. I thought it was common knowledge that the baby's microbiome does not gets its start from stuff from the birth canal, but stuff that is physically close and comes from, uh, the gut.
I thought this was solved (Score:2)
I thought they had solved this problem by rubbing some vag juice on baby's face after the C-section. No?
Weird mishmash of ignorance (Score:5, Informative)
It's quite well documented that the process of newborn getting the gut bacteria is caused by the fact that a few weeks before birth, mother's vaginal acidity changes.
This change enables gut bacteria to access parts of vaginal canal without dying, which newborn then swallows as (s)he goes down the birth canal during normal birthing process. This is why today it's fairly common practice to collect swabs of vaginal microflora during birth to seed newborn's gut flora if (s)he is born via C-section. These swabs should contain mother's gut bacterium as well as vaginal, same as bacterium acquired by those born naturally.
And very quickly after birth, vaginal acidity returns to normal becoming a very hostile environment for gut bacteria again.
Allergies (Score:2)
Studies have also linked the lack of health gut biome with increased allergies.
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Essentially contact with specific microbes in general between ages of 0,5-2 years appears to be a major factor. I recently read a study where they found that children who were systemically exposed to soil microbes during that age had 3% of allergies over next few years of their lives of the control group that wasn't (basically lived a normal Western city dweller baby life).
That's a 97% reduction in allergies. It fits what we know here in Finland, where "allergies end at eastern border". Basically our kids o