A new study just showed that how you were born could impact how your body responded to early vaccinations.
No, i’m not talking about your astrological sign- calm down scorpios.
I’m talking vaginal birth vs c-section.
We’ve known for a while that your gut microbiome first gets seeded by bacteria picked up during passage through your mother’s birth canal, and that early microbial exposure helps to shape the developing immune system. Breastfeeding also helps.
But c-section births take the more sterile, less scenic route.
In this study, researchers measured infant microbiomes, and their antibody responses to meningitidis and pneumonia vaccines.
Within the vaginal group, the breastfed infants had 3.5 times the pneumonia antibodies of formula fed infants, and across feeding type the vaginally delivered infants showed a 1.7 times higher anti-Meningitis antibodies compared to C-section delivered infants.
Now this doesn’t mean that we should abandon c-sections- they save lives! But we probably should be taking care to ensure that infants get the right early bacterial exposure, however we do it.
References
Mode of delivery modulates the intestinal microbiota and impacts the response to vaccination - Nov 15, 2022
Maternal Vertical Transmission Affecting Early-life Microbiota Development - September 03, 2019