According to recent reports from the Mail Online, ‘Babies delivered by caesarean section [are] at higher risk of asthma and allergies,’ but as it was based on a tiny, genetic study, is this bold claim all that it appears to be?
For the study in question, a team of researchers from the Universities of Alberta and Toronto, Canada, among other institutions, looked at bacteria in the gut of 24 babies to test whether or not natural delivery and breastfeeding helps stimulate the production of healthy bacteria in the gut. They therefore looked at differences between babies who had been delivered vaginally and those delivered by caesarean section, and also evaluated whether or not breastfeeding made a difference. When each infant was three to four months old, the researchers collected samples of the baby’s faeces and examined the gut bacteria from these samples using specialist DNA sequencing techniques.
The results, which were published in the peer-reviewed Canadian Medical Association Journal, did show that caesarean-born babies had lower ‘richness’ and diversity of bacteria species compared to naturally born babies, in their small sample. However, when it came to methods of feeding new-borns, the researchers found that formula-fed babies actually had higher ‘bacterial richness’, which they explained that this is consistent with previous studies.
As there is a general consensus that gut bacteria has been linked to an increasing number of diseases, including type 1 diabetes, obesity, cancer, allergies, and asthma, there has been a lot of interest in these results. However, small study such as this, which involved taking single measurements at only one point in time, is unable to prove any link between caesarean sections, breastfeeding, gut bacteria and the likelihood of developing a long-term disease.
Thus, it seems to be reporters, rather than researchers, who are making these bold sweeping headlines about child asthma and allergies. The researchers admitted in their report that these findings are part of ongoing research and hope to provide more information with future studies. Though they have taken a first step in attempting to establish a link between caesarean section and disease, they are not, as the Mail Online headline implies, at the finish line just yet.
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