Newborn Microbiota Study: Restoring Balance with Vaginal Secretions for Babies Born by Caesarean

2023-06-15 17:07:10

Babies born by caesarean do not have the same microbiota as those born naturally, which affects their development. Applying vaginal secretions from the mother to these newborns, however, might limit this effect, according to a study published Thursday.

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Using the mother’s vaginal flora, with its benign bacteria, on babies born by caesarean section restores the balance of the child’s intestinal microbiota and is beneficial for their neurological development, according to the publication in the journal Cell Host & Microbe.

The study, with rigorous methods, however observed only 68 infants.

If these results are confirmed by larger clinical studies, they might allow children born by cesarean section to start off on the same footing as those born vaginally, according to Jose Clemente, co-author of the study and researcher at the school of Icahn Medicine of Mount Sinai Hospitals, New York.

“If the results can be generalized to a larger population, ideally we would like to see this become generalized as a standard of care,” he explains to AFP.

This study comes as cesarean deliveries are on the rise worldwide. They now represent regarding a third of births in the United States, although the World Health Organization estimates that this operation is medically necessary in only regarding 10 to 15% of births.

It had already been established that infants born by cesarean section have a very different intestinal microbiota from those born vaginally (through the vagina).

The latter receive the bacterial flora during birth by natural means, when those born by cesarean section collect these bacteria through their mother’s skin, breast milk and their environment.

If the differences tend to disappear around the age of one year, long-term consequences may remain, with a higher risk of contracting asthma, allergies or diabetes.

“Triple blind”

For this study, Dr. Jose Clemente, a specialist in the role of the microbiota in health, worked with Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China, to test the technique of coating the newborn with vaginal secretions.

His Chinese colleagues, led by researcher Yan He, anointed 32 infants born by caesarean section with gauze soaked in vaginal fluid, with another 36 newborns in a control group having saline applied.

The gauze was previously placed in the mother’s vagina an hour before the caesarean section. The application on newborns, which takes regarding 30 seconds, begins with the mouth and face, before the rest of the body.

The mothers were tested in advance to make sure they did not carry a sexually transmitted disease or streptococcus B.

No child experienced any serious negative impact as a result of the study.

At six weeks, infants smeared with vaginal secretions had a more “mature” gut microbiota closer to those born vaginally than those in the control group.

The team of researchers also set out to study neurological development by applying a standardized questionnaire at three and six months, asking the mothers if their offspring might, for example, emit simple sounds, or crawl.

Young children who received the treatment and not the placebo had better results, both at three and six months.

“We believe that this is partly due to the fact that certain microbes produce chemical particles that might affect brain functions,” explained Dr. Clemente, referring to a booming field of research.

This small study, he adds, was ‘triple-blind’, meaning mothers, caregivers and researchers were blinded to which babies were in which group, to avoid bias. .

Jose Clemente is now committed to expanding the study with his Chinese colleagues to approach real clinical practice, and is working on a parallel study to find out if this technique reduces the risk of food allergies.

In the meantime, he insists, this practice should not be implemented outside of a supervised clinical study.

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