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Do C-section babies need mum’s microbes? Trials tackle controversial idea

Swabbing infants with mothers’ vaginal bacteria could affect the children’s health, but critics warn of sparse data and high risk.
  1. Sara Reardon
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When a baby passes through its mother’s birth canal, it is bathed in a soup of microbes. Those born by caesarean section (C-section) miss out on this bacterial baptism, and researchers are sharply split on whether that increases the risk of chronic health problems such as obesity and asthma.

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Nature 572, 423-424 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02348-3

References

  1. Dominguez-Bello, M. G. et al. Proc Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 11971–11975 (2010).

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  2. Sevelsted, A., Stokholm, J., Bønnelykke, K. & Bisgaard, H. Pediatrics 135, e92-8 (2015).

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  3. Martinez, K. A. et al. Sci. Adv. 3, eaao1874 (2017).

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