Feeding a baby born by caesarean section milk containing a tiny bit of their mother’s poo introduces beneficial microbes to their gut, according to a clinical trial. The approach might one day help to prevent diseases during childhood and later in life.

Some studies show that babies born by c-section, rather than vaginal birth, have a higher risk of asthma, inflammation of the digestive system and other diseases associated with a dysfunctional immune system… Experiments have attempted to compensate for that by swabbing babies born by c-section with microbes from their mother’s vagina or giving them these microbes orally, a practice known as ‘vaginal seeding’. But this technique has had limited success, because vaginal microbes, scientists have learnt, cannot effectively colonize infants’ guts…

Helve and his colleagues have been pioneers in testing whether faecal transplants can instead improve the health of a baby’s microbiome. In their latest trial, which recruited women scheduled for a c-section at the Helsinki University Hospital, the researchers mixed a fluid containing 3.5 milligrams of a mother’s poo into milk and gave the concoction to the corresponding baby. They did this for 15 babies during their first feed. Another 16 babies received a placebo.

An important next step in the field, Shao says, would be to pinpoint the specific maternal gut microbes that are most likely to transmit to and colonize their babies’ guts. Shao asks: “If these species do exist across human populations, wouldn’t it be more effective and safer” to give newborns a laboratory-made transplant that’s guaranteed to be pathogen-free?

“This is the shit”

But seriously don’t try this at home. Fecal matters can contain pathogens, in fact 54 of the 90 women screened were excluded because of detected pathogens. If this goes well maybe ppl can make some type of lab-made probiotics for C-section babies or stuff

The abstract presented at IDWeek 2024: https://idweek2024.eventscribe.net/index.asp?presTarget=2886841

  • VeganPizza69 Ⓥ
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    29 days ago

    Different study:

    Early-life microbiota seeding and subsequent development is crucial to future health. Cesarean-section (CS) birth, as opposed to vaginal delivery, affects early mother-to-infant transmission of microbes. Here, we assess mother-to-infant microbiota seeding and early-life microbiota development across six maternal and four infant niches over the first 30 days of life in 120 mother-infant pairs. Across all infants, we estimate that on average 58.5% of the infant microbiota composition can be attributed to any of the maternal source communities. All maternal source communities seed multiple infant niches. We identify shared and niche-specific host/environmental factors shaping the infant microbiota. In CS-born infants, we report reduced seeding of infant fecal microbiota by maternal fecal microbes, whereas colonization with breastmilk microbiota is increased when compared with vaginally born infants. Therefore, our data suggest auxiliary routes of mother-to-infant microbial seeding, which may compensate for one another, ensuring that essential microbes/microbial functions are transferred irrespective of disrupted transmission routes. https://www.cell.com/cell-host-microbe/fulltext/S1931-3128(23)00043-4