An article recently published in the magazine Nature examines an experimental study on the practice of swabbing babies born by cesarean with i vaginal fluids of the mother to encourage the development of a microbiome appears to be safe – and could improve it brain development, finds the largest study of the controversial practice. The randomized study of 76 newborns with their mothers found that babies who were swabbed with vaginal fluids by their mothers achieved slightly more neurological development of three and six months compared to children in the group of subjects who did not receive treatment.
But it’s unclear whether these differences will be significant or long-lasting, as the scientists report. THE baby’s first bacteria could they take root before birth? “This will not make a difference between a future ad Harvard o no“, he has declared Jose Clementea microbiologist at the Icahn School of Medicine a Mount Sinai a New York and co-author of the study, which was conducted in a hospital in Chinese. “There will need to be future studies to determine exactly the mechanism that could maximize the benefits of such a discovery.”
The birth of the microbiome in the newborn
Mothers who carry their babies naturally provide them with the beginnings of a microbiome – the body’s collection of microbes in the gut, on the skin and elsewhere. THE mother’s vaginal fluids and dabbing them immediately after birth on a baby’s skin were the subject of a study on differences in children’s microbiome. Babies in the caesarean section of this group had higher levels of opportunistic bacteria – those circulating in the hospital – in their guts in the days after birth, and, months later, tended to lack common gut microbes to support life immune function.
Although the study did not identify the long-term effects of the so-called “vaginal sowing“, the results have aroused much interest in science. In the 2017the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has expressed concern that vaginal seeding could transmit pathogens and recommended that the procedure be conducted only as part of a clinical trial.
Future applications
To better understand the security of vaginal sowing and determine its potential benefits, a team coordinated by the clinical scientist Yan He at Southern Medical University of Guangzhouin Chineserecruited women who had to have a cesarean delivery for clinical reasons, and were randomly selected to have their newborns exposed to vaginal swabs or saline solution (for the control group).
The women were first screened for numerous infectious diseases that could threaten the children’s health – including the COVID-19, because the study was conducted at the height of the pandemic. Children who came into contact with vaginal fluid swabs did not develop serious health problems, and had no complications, including minor skin conditions and feverish episodes, compared to the control group of children swabbed with saline.
The benefits on cognitive development
When the babies were three to six months old, the researchers asked their parents to compile a list related to the stages of neurological development in communication, movement, problem solving, and social and personal skills, such as looking for toys and smiling at their reflections in a mirror. Infants who had had contact with vaginal swabs tended to arrive earlier in acquiring these cognitive skills, compared to the control group subjected to the same practice with the saline solution.
“It is a very exciting and promising discovery,” he has declared Alexander Khorutsa physician-scientist at the University of the Minnesota a Minneapolis. But it’s not yet clear whether the neurodevelopmental differences will prove significant in growth, because the brain changes so much as children develop.
Possible future treatments for subjects with neuro-developmental disabilities
Lars Engstrandclinical microbiologist at the Karolinska Institute of Stockholm, is convinced of the safety of vaginal seeding, but only if the mothers are screened for pathogens. “This remains a fundamental condition for any clinical research in this field.”
“I don’t think our data now makes any real clinical sense to tell every caesarean delivery patient ‘yes, you should have your baby have this surgery’“, he has declared Engstrand. In particular, the researcher believes that long-term investigations will be needed to ascertain whether vaginal seeding affects the rates of neuro-developmental conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and the autism spectrum disorder. These kinds of problems are more common in people born via caesarean section, according to scholars.
The progress of this study
Other clinical trials are also trying to identify other potential benefits of vaginal sowing. Engstrand and his colleagues are measuring their effect on a skin condition called Atopic dermatitis in an experiment involving about 300 participants. I study Clemente is also part of a US study that is looking into allergies and asthma, and a team led by Maria Gloria Dominguez-Belloa microbial ecologist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, IL New Jersery which is currently studying its effects on obesity.
I vaginal swabs are not the only way to alter the microbiomes of children in the observed group: a study by 2020 found that giving newborns diluted fecal samples from their mothers led to the development of a gut microbiome similar to that of babies given a vaginal fluid sample. Khoruts he said such observations should prompt researchers to identify how the specific microbes transferred during birth develop. “This is what the next steps must lead to.”