Caesarian section births have allowed millions of women to successfully give birth to healthy babies. However, the very nature of a cesarian birth eliminates the passage of the newborn through the birth canal. It is during this passage that the baby that matured in the bacteria-free womb gets its first infusion of bacteria from its mother. Babies that emerge through natural birth have microbiomes that closely mirror those of their mothers while babies born through caesarian section have microbiomes characteristic of their hospital setting. The difference seems to have long term impacts on the vitality of caesarian babies immune systems and in their long term susceptibility to a variety of auto-immune ailments.
While still not common practice, many parents are electing to “inoculate” babies born through caesarian section with swabs infused with fecal traces from the mother’s birth canal. This approach seems to provide the vital starter set of gut bacteria that prepares the newborn for the blizzard of environmental bacteria that it is about to encounter