About the episode
Babies receive essential bacteria from their mothers during birth and immediately afterwards, but whether they also receive them in the case of a caesarean section has long been unclear.
Researchers led by UMC Utrecht and the University of Edinburgh have set out to find out. They saw that mothers are able to transfer bacteria to their babies through multiple routes. Babies born by caesarean section receive less of their mother’s gut microbiome during birth, but this appears to be partly offset by bacteria in breast milk.
120 Dutch mothers and newborn babies participated in the study. Samples of the skin, nose, saliva and gut microbiome were collected from the babies. Two hours after birth and then when they were one day, one week, two weeks and one month old. Samples of the skin, breast milk, nose, throat, stool and vagina were taken from the mothers.
Subsequently, differences between mother and child and the effect of the mode of delivery, antibiotic use and breastfeeding were examined. For example, the researchers saw that mothers can transmit bacteria via various routes and that if some of these routes are blocked for one reason or another, the transfer of microbes to the child can still take place via other routes. The ratio of types of bacteria may be different. The effect of this needs to be further investigated.
Overall, about 58 percent of a baby’s microbiome comes from the mother. They want to look at how the rest comes about in a subsequent study. Just like the effect of the microbiome on the health of the child later in life.
Read more about the study here: Breastfeeding even more important after caesarean section.