{"id":876,"date":"2019-01-30T14:42:02","date_gmt":"2019-01-30T19:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/?p=876"},"modified":"2019-01-30T14:43:45","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T19:43:45","slug":"bacterial-baptism-all-the-rage-or-not-so-sage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/?p=876","title":{"rendered":"Bacterial Baptism \u2013 All the Rage \u2013 or Not so Sage?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Sasha Klemawesch, MD<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t heard of Bacterial Baptisms, you are not alone.\u00a0 However, in some communities, the trend of vaginal seeding or \u201cbaptism by bacteria\u201d has started to really catch on.<\/p>\n

The idea behind the movement started due to the theory that when babies are born via C-section, it is a very sterile procedure, and they end up lacking the immediate exposure to the normal bacterial flora that infants for centuries experienced as they made their way through the birth canal into the world for their first breath. Some researchers postulated that with the ever-increasing number of cesareans performed in western medicine and therefore, growing number of children who lacked that initial exposure to bacterial flora, could that in some way be related to or partly responsible for the also ever-increasing prevalence of various autoimmune disorders, atopy, obesity, and other illnesses that continue to rise in prevalence of the same populations?<\/p>\n

It seems like a sound idea, especially since the Hygiene Hypotheses is so widely known and accepted, which is why there have been a growing number of mothers who choose to practice Vaginal Seeding; a process in which an infant born via C-section will immediately be swabbed with gauzes that have been instilled inside the mothers\u2019 vagina for a period of time prior to delivery in order to transfer the normal vaginal microbiome onto the infant.\u00a0 A small study in 2016 found that this practice was safe and possibly beneficial, however now there are more voices on the other side raising concerns; for instance, some argue that babies already are exposed to normal healthy bacteria via contact with mom\u2019s skin and breast milk and that they don\u2019t need the extra load.\u00a0 Some say that there are too many other confounding factors, and it is unlikely that the lack of that initial exposure to vaginal bacteria is really the biggest issue.\u00a0 Both sides agree that larger and more long-term research studies are needed before making the ultimate decision.\u00a0 So, for now, if you are expecting in the near future, talk to your OB about what her thoughts are on the topic to make the best decision for you and for your little one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Sasha Klemawesch, MD   If you haven\u2019t heard of Bacterial Baptisms, you are not alone.\u00a0 However, in some communities, the trend of vaginal seeding or \u201cbaptism by bacteria\u201d has started to really catch on. The idea behind the movement started due to the theory that when babies are born via C-section, it is a very sterile procedure, and they end up lacking the immediate exposure to the normal bacterial flora that infants for centuries experienced as they made their…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[390],"class_list":["post-876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bacterial-baptism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=876"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":880,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876\/revisions\/880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allergy-associates.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}