Beneficial Microbiota can be Restored at Birth in C-section Babies
Babies born by caesarean section lack the same healthy bacteria as those born vaginally, but a Rutgers-led study for the first time finds that these natural bacteria can be restored.
The human microbiota, consisting of trillions of bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microorganisms, live in and on our bodies, some potentially harmful while others provide benefits. During labour and birth, women naturally impart a small group of colonisers to their babies’ sterile bodies, which helps their immune system to develop. But antibiotics and C-sections disrupt this conferring of microbes and are related to increased risks of obesity (59% increase), asthma (21% increase) and metabolic diseases. ‘Vaginal seeding‘, where a baby delivered by C-section is swabbed with their mother’s vaginal fluids at birth, is becoming increasingly popular.
According to the World Health Organization, C-section is needed in about 15 percent of births to avoid risking the life of the mother or child. However, caesarean birth rates continue to rise worldwide with recent (2016) reported rates of 24.5% in Western Europe, 32% in North America, and 41% in South America.
To see how well babies could be seeded with the mother’s microbiota after birth, the researchers followed 177 babies from four countries over the first year of their lives. Of these, 98 were born vaginally and 79 were born by C-section, 30 of which were swabbed with a maternal vaginal gauze right after birth.
Analysis showed that the microbiota of the C-section babies swabbed with their mother’s vaginal fluids was similar to that of vaginally born babies. Also, the mother’s vaginal microbiomes on the day of birth were similar to other areas of their bodies (gut, mouth and skin), indicating that maternal vaginal fluids help to colonise bacteria across their babies’ bodies.
This was the first large observational study to show that ‘vaginal seeding’ normalises the microbiome development during their first year of life. The next step would be conducting randomised clinical trials to determine if the microbiota normalisation translates into disease protection, the researchers said.
“Further research is needed to determine which bacteria protect against obesity, asthma and allergies, diseases with underlying inflammation,” said senior author Maria Gloria Dominguez Bello, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. “Our results support the hypothesis that acquiring maternal vaginal microbes normalises microbiome development in the babies.”
Source: University News
