Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/GIM0xl8Rs10   Babies delivered by C-section rather than by a normal vaginal route develop a gastrointestinal bacterial population contaminated by bad bugs found around the hospital.  Their gut bacteria include antibiotic-resistant ones rather than the more benign species found in their mothers.   British researchers studied 600 healthy babies to identify their gut bacteria using DNA fingerprinting techniques.  The C-section babies had more than 800 potentially-dangerous bacteria, of the type that cause life-threatening, blood-borne infections in hospitalized patients.   These observations mandate that C-sections be avoided except for life-threatening situations.  Elective c-sections for convenience are foolish and unnecessarily risky.   Yan Shao et al. Stunted gut microbiota and increased pathogen colonisation associated with caesarean birth. Nature #2019 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1560-1   #Caesariansection #microbiome #antibioticresistantbacteria