Mother's Poop Might Boost the Health of C-section Newborns
Diluting a small amount of mother's feces in breast milk and feeding it to infants delivered by the cesarean section just after their birth may help build healthy microbiota, revealed a paper that appeared in the journal Cell.
The procedure appeared to be safe and at three months results in the newborns having a microbial makeup that looks more similar to newborns born vaginally.
‘Infants delivered by cesarean section have an increased risk of developing asthma and allergies as babies and toddlers, probably because they don't get exposed to the mother's vagina's microbiota perineum during birth, negatively impacting how their immune systems develop.’
"From a clinical point of view, this transfer of microbial material is happening during a vaginal delivery," says co-senior author Sture Andersson, of the Pediatric Research Center at the University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital in Finland. "This is a gift the mother gives to her baby."
The mothers who took part in the study were recruited with leaflets placed in doctors' waiting rooms. Seven mothers who were scheduled to have C-sections were enrolled in the study.
Fecal microbiota transplants (FMTs) were given to the newborns shortly after birth. The fecal samples of the mothers' were collected three weeks beforehand. The newborns were made to stay in the hospital for two days after the transplant to monitor for complications, if any.
The babies' fecal microbiota was tested at birth (the meconium) and again at two days, one week, two weeks, three weeks, and three months. The babies also had blood work done two days after birth.
By three months of age, the microbiotas of the babies who received the FMTs were similar to those of babies born vaginally.
"This was not designed as a safety study, but we found it to be effective and supporting the concept of vertical transfer from mother to baby," says co-senior author Willem de Vos, of the Human Microbiome Research Program at the University of Helsinki and the Laboratory of Microbiology at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. "However, it's very important to tell people that this is not something they should try on their own. The samples have to be tested for safety and suitability."
The researchers plan to study the development of C-section babies' immune systems who receive FMTs and compare them to those who don't.
Source: Medindia