Like many other things we see in trend, pregnancy has its own trends going on. The other day I was scrolling through my Instagram and came across this procedure “SEEDING” as a new trend in pregnancy. And today I am ready with all my answers for you.
So What is seeding? Let’s get to know more about this.
“Seeding” is a process where the patient places gauze in her vagina for an hour then after her cesarean section rubs the gauze in her baby’s mouth and over his body in order to help colonize the baby with healthy bacteria. However, moving forward - there is some merit to the idea but not enough safety data to recommend the procedure just yet.
Babies born vaginally, have healthier gut bacteria (microbiome) than babies born by cesarean section. Babies born vaginally also have lower rates of allergies, asthma and obesity than babies born by cesarean section, but a cause and effect relationship has yet to be proven. It is theorized that it’s the healthy bacteria from a vaginal delivery that actually reduces the risk of this disease, but the studies that prove this hypothesis, I guess they themselves are on a vacation as of now.
The practice of vaginal seeding is based on a poster presentation by Dr Dominguez-Bello that was presented at the American Society of Microbiology. The research involved 21 babies, only 7 of which were seeded with vaginal flora. The babies were followed for 1 month and found to have an increased diversity of bacterial flora.
For now, that’s all the answers I could gather on the process of Seeding. If you come across something more or have experienced it yourself, please feel free to share all about it in the comment section below.