Beneficial Bacterial Restored in C-Section Babies: Here’s How

How to restore bacteria in babies born through a cesarean section? Vaginal seeding, a process where babies are swabbed with the mother's vaginal fluid restores beneficial bacteria.

Covering newborns delivered by cesarean section with the vaginal fluid of their mothers after birth transfers beneficial bacteria back to their skin surface and stools. This process is known as vaginal seeding (), definitively engrafted new strains of maternal bacteria in the babies’ bodies.

These strains normally would not be present in newborns because, during C-sections, infants are directly extracted from their mother’s wombs, bypassing the vaginal canal. In the first randomized study of its kind, published in the science journal mBio, a team of researchers has shown the benefit of this process.

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‘The practice of wiping a baby’s mouth, face, and skin with its mother’s vaginal fluids after a C-section, transfers healthy bacteria back to the baby. #Childbirth #human microbiota #Caesaren section’

This study is the first double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial to determine whether vaginal seeding causes maternal bacteria to engraft in the skin and stool of neonates.

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Neonates are infants who are younger than 28 days old. In the randomized, blinded study, neither the participants nor the study’s facilitators knew which of the subjects was receiving the material being studied – in this case, the participating mothers’ vaginal fluids – and who were given a placebo.

Despite some limitations in this early study, including small sample size and only two samples taken over time, researchers observed significant effects of vaginal seeding on the neonatal microbiota.

The term microbiome refers to the collection of genomes or essential genetic material from all the microorganisms in the environment (). Scientists have found over recent decades that these collections of microorganisms play a pivotal role in human health, interacting with metabolism, the immune system, and the central nervous system.

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Numerous studies have shown substantial differences exist between the microbiomes in neonates delivered by C-section and those born in a vaginal delivery. Some scientists, such as Dominguez-Bello, theorize that babies born via C-section may miss out on exposure to the first live microbes meant to colonize their bodies and sustain their health.

An increasing body of research demonstrates that this thwarting of microbial colonization during critical early-life windows of development alters metabolic and immune programming and is associated with an increased risk of immune and metabolic diseases – including asthma, food allergies, obesity, and diabetes.

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In this new study, researchers took samples of microbiota from the skin and stool of 20 infants during two periods – when the babies were one day old and when they were one month old. They found evidence the maternal microbes had been engrafted in the infants ().

They also found that, when compared with the babies that received a placebo, the infants that received vaginal seeding hosted a different bacterial population on their skin and in their stool. Their microbiomes included a pattern of bacterial diversity that was more characteristic of those babies who have been breastfed and have been delivered vaginally.

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As part of a continuing study, the researchers will continue to assess the microbiomes of the babies for the next five years, as well as track their growth patterns and whether they develop any markers of metabolic or immune-related disease.

References:

Vaginal seeding after cesarean birth: Can we build a better infant microbiome? - (https://www.cell.com/med/fulltext/S2666-6340(21)00259-2)
Recent advances in understanding the neonatal microbiome - (https://f1000research.com/articles/9-422/v1)
Maternal Bacterial Engraftment in Multiple Body Sites of Cesarean Section Born Neonates after Vaginal Seeding—a Randomized Controlled Trial - (https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mbio.00491-23)

Source-Eurekalert