The best gift from a mother to her newborn in the delivery room

Vaginal delivery is associated with low allergies, development of type 1 diabetes and obesity in childhood and later life.

If not breach position, multiple pregnancies, repeat Caesarian Section, placenta issues, prolonged labor, fetal distress, congenital disabilities, and small pelvis, any mother should give her baby(s) the best by having a vaginal delivery. This is because the vaginal section is lined with healthy bacteria to boost the later life immune system.

During pregnancy, the vaginal flora is adjusted to more lactobacilli species, suppressing pathogens by hydrogen production and lactic acid hence referred to as non-pathogenic bacteria1. Vaginal deliveries colonize the babies and their gut with the lactobacilli, which are healthy bacteria developed from the mother’s immune system. These healthy bacteria are also transferred to the baby. Hence the infant immunity is boosted in the process.

On the other hand, the babies born through caesarian section (C-S) have a different trend and diversity of bacteria compared to the vaginally delivered counterparts. In a study monitoring the gut of babies for the first one week, lower levels of Bacteriodetes, Proteobacteria, and Bifidobacterium were observed among infants born through C-S[1]. The infants born through C-S are first colonized with the bacteria from close contacts and those from the mother’s abdomen which is rich in E-coli. This bacteria is associated with infections. In addition, the gut is less diverse compared to vaginally born babies. The meta-analysis study also shows that the maturity of the gut from C-S-born babies is also delayed. Nevertheless, once the babies start feeding, they assume the same gut flora; hence after the first month, it is difficult to tell the differences between per vaginal and C- section delivered babies1. The feeding adjusts the microbiota, and babies fed with formula and breast milk become richly colonized with the lactobacillus.

Although the differences in microbiota at infancy is not observed beyond three months of age, research shows that mode of delivery is correlated with the developments of allergies, type 1 diabetes, and obesity at childhood and later in life[2]. These outcomes can mean that early life colonization trains the immune system that manifests later in life.

So if caesarian section can be avoided, the better.

[1] Erigene Rutayisire et al., “The Mode of Delivery Affects the Diversity and Colonization Pattern of the Gut Microbiota during the First Year of Infants’ Life: A Systematic Review,” BMC Gastroenterology 16, no. 1

[2] Yan Shao et al., “Stunted Microbiota and Opportunistic Pathogen Colonization in Caesarean-Section Birth,” Nature 574, no. 7776