Babies born by caesarean should be fed small amounts of their mother’s poo mixed with breast milk to help boost their immune systems, scientists say.
Newborns who have not passed through their mother’s vagina have less microbiota and are at increased risk of developing asthma and allergies as babies and toddlers, researchers found.
Scientists say this is probably because they do not get exposed to the microbiota in the mother’s vagina and perineum during birth, which negatively affects how their immune system develops.
While a few studies have looked at whether swabbing an infant’s skin with vaginal fluid immediately after birth reduces this risk, a new study offers a more drastic way to expose newborns to their mother’s microbiota.
It suggests that by diluting a small amount of their mother’s excrement in breast milk and feeding it to them just after birth, they can help their immune systems.
Three months into the research, the results showed the newborns had a microbial makeup that looked more similar to babies born vaginally than to those born by C-section, scientists said.
Co-senior author of the study, Sture Andersson, of the Pediatric Research Centre at the University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital in Finland, said: “From a clinical point of view, this transfer of microbial material is happening during a vaginal delivery. This is a gift the mother gives to her baby.”
At birth, the immune system is undeveloped, but once a baby begins living in the outside world, their immune system matures in response to microbial exposure.
Although every person’s microbiota is individualised, the overall patterns of which bacteria types colonise the gut are different in babies born vaginally and those born by C-section, experts said.
These variations appear to make a difference in how the immune system learns to respond to outside stimuli, including potential allergens, researchers said.
Willem de Vos, another co-senior author of the Human Microbiome Research Program at the University of Helsinki and the Laboratory of Microbiology at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, said: “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.
(Image: Westend61)
“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 mothers who took part in the study in Helsinki were recruited with leaflets placed in doctors’ waiting rooms. About 30 women contacted the researchers to learn more, and 17 agreed to participate.
Ten of them were found to have contraindications, such as a recent course of antibiotics or a potentially dangerous microbe, and ultimately seven mothers who were scheduled to have C-sections were enrolled.
The babies were given the faecal microbiota transplants (FMTs) shortly after birth. The mothers’ faecal samples were collected three weeks beforehand.
The babies stayed in the hospital for two days after the transplant to make sure there were no complications.
The babies’ own faecal microbiota was tested at birth 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.
Video Loading
Video Unavailable
The investigators found that by three months of age, the microbiotas of the babies who received the FMTs were similar to those of babies born vaginally.
They were different from those of babies born by C-section, as well as from their mothers’ microbiotas.
As a baseline for these comparisons, the researchers used data collected previously at the same hospital, as well as global datasets, the scientists said.
Andersson added that despite how unpalatable this research may seem to most people, the mothers who agreed to participate in the study were very motivated.
One woman who was having twins was told the FMT could be given to one baby, with the other one used as a sort of control.
She declined, stating that she didn’t want one of her babies to have an unfair advantage by receiving the transplant.
In future work, the researchers plan to study the development of the immune systems in C-section babies who receive FMTs and compare it to those who don’t.
Unlike the current study, which was observational, the future studies will have a control group and will be blinded to the mothers.
The paper was published in the journal Cell.
No comments:
Post a Comment