Dabbing babies born via caesarean section with their mom's vaginal fluids may help restore some of the potentially valuable bacteria that they should have naturally picked up had they pass through the birth canal, a new study says.

Researchers from the University of California, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and San Diego School of Medicine found that by swabbing vaginal microbes from mothers to their babies born via C-section, it partially restores the infant's microbiome, which is believed to impact the health of these babies in later life.

Though C-section saves many lives of both mothers and their babies, the rates rocketed in the past years. In 1965, the national C-section birth rate was just 4.5 percent, but it increased to 32.9 percent in 2009. It slightly decreased to 32.2 percent in 2014, but still involved even low-risk women opting to deliver via caesarean.

Babies born via normal spontaneous delivery acquire natural microbiome that help educate their immune system. Studies in the past show that babies born via C-section is linked with various diseases such as allergies, atopic disease, obesity, asthma and other immune deficiency conditions.

The study, which was published in Nature Medicine, involved seven babies born vaginally and 11 by C-section. Of the latter, four babies were swabbed with the vaginal fluids of their mothers.

To do this, a sterile gauze was incubated in the vaginal canal an hour before the scheduled C-section birth. One to two minutes after the babies were delivered, the researchers swabbed the lips, chest, face, back, genitals, legs and anal region with the gauze.

In the first month of life of these infants, researchers collected bacteria from oral, skin and anal sites of the infants swabbed with microbiome for six times resulting in more than 1,500 samples. They found that C-section babies exposed to their mothers' vaginal fluids had colonies of bacteria similar to those who were born vaginally.

"[The study] provides the proof-of-concept that microbiome modification early in life is possible. In fact, we already have more than 10,000 additional samples collected as part of this study that still await analysis," Rob Knight, Ph.D., director of the Center for Microbiome Innovation at UC San Diego, said.

Photo: Bridget Coila | Flickr