Key Message: Birth canal bacteria could restore some of the bacteria lost during c-section births
Action Point: More research is needed however a restoring intervention may be possible for babies that have not passed the birth canal
Researchers have begun to experiment with the concept of collecting birth-canal bacteria and wiping them onto babies (born by C section) as opposed to a normal birth where the effluvia is wiped off.
They are doing this in an effort to explore the theory that altered bacterial populations could help explain why C-section babies tend to have higher chances of asthma, allergies, obesity and other health risks.
Obviously during labour, the baby is rubbing against the mucosa of the birth canal for a long time and bacteria start growing before the baby is even out and continues to grow exponentially. In this study, researchers are trying to determine whether it might help babies delivered by C-section to restore some of the vaginal bacteria that they would have been exposed to if they had gone through the birth canal.
It has been found that vaginal delivery exposes the baby to many more bacteria than C-section babies.
While the research is intriguing and the intervention seems so simple, many questions still remain and much more research is still needed.
There are concerns that this work will encourage women to have C-sections, however Dr Maria Gloria Dominguex-Bello, associate professor in the Human Microbiome Program at the NYU School of Medicine says, “the microbes are just one part of labor and we don’t understand completely the whole process and why it is important.”
Her main concern in this study is to determine the impact of not having a heavily inoculated canal and if this can be restored.
With the initial restoration that was completed, only partial bacteria was restored. The basic principle is that babies that should have crossed the birth canal, and for no medical reason they don’t, then this is a restoring intervention.
It is unknown how much it will be regulated, if at all, as it is currently not standard medical practice. The next step in the research on the gauze intervention is to increase the number of babies and extend the study in other countries.
Reference
- Goldberg, C (2014) “ Could birth canal bacteria help C-section babies?” Wbur’s CommonHealth Reform and Reality. Accessed online 16 September 2015 at http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2014/06/birth-canal-bacteria-c-section
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Written by: Sandra Di Giacomo |
