In recent years a very interesting line of research has been opened on the immune system of babies and their relationship with the intestinal flora from which they are contaminated at birth, to the point that it has been seen that it is not the same to be born vaginally to be born by caesarean section, because the bacteria that become part of the baby are very different.
With the intention of trying to help babies born by caesarean section to have an intestinal flora similar to what they would have been born by vaginal delivery, a group of researchers has tested a fairly rudimentary but effective measure: pass a gauze stuck in the mother's vagina on the baby's face so she has a better intestinal microbiota and, consequently, a better immune system.
Why contaminate the baby with the mother?
Babies are born sterile. This means that they are born without intestinal flora, ready to colonize as soon as they come into contact with the mother, of her various bacteria. This is so because all the mother's bacteria are already known in some ways by the baby, who is the son.
When a baby is born by caesarean section, what happens is that it does not pass through the birth canal, and consequently does not colonize its bacteria, but takes them from the environment in which it is. For example, babies born by caesarean section tend to colonize more frequently by bacteria Clostridium difficile, which is usually in the digestive system of people who usually spend a lot of time in hospitals, and suffer from the absence of other bacteria such as Bifidobacteria Y Bacteroides, of those that end up contaminating with the passage of the weeks, always in smaller quantity than those that are born vaginally.
What this represents for the baby has to do with the long-term immune response. For example, it has been seen that babies born by caesarean section may have a higher risk of allergies and according to the study we are discussing today, It is also associated with "an increased risk of immunological and metabolic disorders". And being born by caesarean section seems to be related also to diseases such as asthma, obesity and diabetes.
Pass a gauze stuck in the vagina on the baby's face?
You are right. Explained in this way it sounds like a lair, to "what need is there to do something like that", but in reality it is still an approach to what the baby would have lived if she had been born vaginally: if Muhammad does not go to the mountain the mountain goes to Muhammad.
According to the study and as we read in 20 minutes, introducing gauze into the mother's vagina to impregnate them with their microorganisms and then passing them through the baby's face at birth by caesarean section helped the babies studied to have an intestinal, anal microbiota and on the skin, very similar to that of babies born vaginally.
In conclusion, the study authors explained that, although the long-term health consequences that this method could cause are not clear (it is not quantified what would be the benefit of restoring the bacteria that do not receive at birth by caesarean section), the results They show that it is possible to achieve it, in case you want to do it.
Come on, it is possible that in a while babies who are going to be born by caesarean section will be made said "washing" with gauze from the mother's vagina in order to improve your microbiota and alleviate the possible effects of that absence of maternal bacteria.
