Study Purpose and Background d

What is the main purpose of this study?

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate if vaginal seeding of a child’s nose is feasible and safe procedure.

What is vaginal seeding?

Vaginal seeding involves swabbing a baby’s body part (such as the nose) with the mother’s vaginal fluids (that is, secretions from the mother’s vaginal area) soon after birth by cesarean section (C-section).

Babies born vaginally are covered with their mother’s vaginal fluids. These fluids are present at birth in the child’s nose, mouth, and skin. Some studies have suggested that these fluids could be a source of “good” bacteria, which could help in the development of a child’s immune response (that is, how a child‘s body defends itself against infection or reacts against different exposures). In contrast, babies born by C-section are not exposed to the bacteria present in the mother’s vaginal fluids. This could explain why children born by C-section seem to have a higher risk for developing some common respiratory diseases later in life (such as bronchiolitis, hay fever, or asthma).

The idea behind vaginal seeding of a child’s nose is that this procedure could transfer some good bacteria from a mother to her baby after birth by C-section, thus trying to imitate what happens when a child is naturally exposed to the mother’s vaginal fluids during a vaginal delivery.