How Babies Born By C-Section Make Up for Lost Microbes

After nine months spent as a growing life in someone else’s body, the second a baby is born, they begin growing life in their own body: colonies of tiny bacterial cells ready to begin populating a baby’s gut microbiome. This microbial starter pack is a sort of going-away present from the mother’s body, acquired by a baby on the journey from the uterus through the birth canal. As a baby grows, their internal ecosystem becomes more complex, until eventually they’ve developed the robust bacterial diversity that allows the gut and other microbial havens to regulate and protect immunity and so many other elements of health. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] This method of microbial transfer is a great evolutionary game plan. But in the modern world, there’s an issue: Not all babies take the same route out. Do infants born via C-section receive the same bacterial boon as those born vaginally? The answer is no, and the question of how to remedy this deficit is at the heart of an emerging field of research. It’s also a question of increasing importance as the rate of C-section deliveries continues to rise in the U.S. By missing the vaginal canal, babies born by C-section have less microbial exposure at birth, but a paper published Mar. 8 in the journal Cell Host & Microbe suggests that there may be ways to compensate for this loss during the first few weeks of life. There’s no question that vaginal births impart more benefic...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Research Source Type: news