How method of birth alters babies' bacteria

Merin Porter

Well, I thought THIS was interesting!

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-49740735

This study - by Wellcome Sanger Institute, UCL, and the University of Birmingham - assessed how the microbiome forms when we leave our mother's sterile womb and enter a world full of bugs.

Regular samples were taken from the nappies of nearly 600 babies for the first month of life, and some provided faecal samples for up to a year.

The study, published in the journal Nature, showed vaginally born babies got most of their early bacteria from their mother.

But Caesarean-section babies had high levels of hospital bugs such as Klebsiella and Pseudomonas.

"What surprised me and scared me was the amount of healthcare bugs showing up in these children," Dr Trevor Lawley, from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, told the BBC.

"It could be 30% of their total microbiome.

"But what excites me is we have an amazing body of data now that we can build on, to think about how to properly establish the human ecosystem, starting at birth."

shllnzl

I read that in some places (not named) caesarean born babies are being wiped down with the mother's vaginal bacteria to make up for unnatural birth.

Merin Porter

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/845044#Comment_845044

They actually mention that in the article, but say there are some potential dangers to it and so recommend against it.

merlin44

Women, it seems, have given away their power in childbirth. Caesarean's scheduled for a doctor's convenience and spinal's given for pain before it's felt. And our babies suffer for it.