When C-section born infants are given a cocktail of poo plus breast milk, their microbiomes look very similar to their vaginally-born counterparts. C-section-born infants have very different gut microbiomes than those born vaginally. Current research points to the hypothesis that these differences put C-section-born infants at a significantly higher risk for disease and less optimal overall health later in life. In a recent study, researchers orally administered small amounts of maternal fecal matter, mixed with breastmilk, to 7 C-section-born infants and found that their gut bacteria were transformed into a microbiome quite similar to those born vaginally. Cell Takeaway: While vaginal seeding (swabbing the mother’s vagina and administering the swab to the infant’s mouth) has shown minimal results in colonizing the C-section born infant’s gut microbiome, this method of FMT proves much more effective in colonizing the gut with beneficial microbes. This proof-of-concept study is the first of its kind…
