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MANILA - Mothers should now think twice before choosing a caesarean section especially when there is no medical or emergency reason to have it.
According to one expert, babies delivered through caesarian section are significantly more likely to develop allergic diseases and infections later in life than children born naturally.
“The reason is that the bacteria present in the mother’s birth canal that are proving to be beneficial in the development of a new-born baby’s immune system,” said Dr. Bengt Björkstén, emeritus professor of Allergy Prevention and Pediatrics at the Karolinska Institutet at Stockholm, Sweden.
Björkstén, who recently visited the Philippines, is one of the world’s leading expert in pediatric immunology who did studies on the role of intestinal microorganisms in the development of a baby’s immune system.
Stimulate
He explained that as the baby is being born, the bacteria residing in the mother’s birth canal colonizes the baby’s “sterile” intestine, thereby enabling the baby’s immune system sufficient time to identify the “invaders,” and afterward, develop protective immunity against them.
Such process could not happen during caesarian section because the sterile condition that the procedure is carried out keeps the baby from encountering these bacteria.
Caesarian section is a procedure in which the baby, rather than being born vaginally, is surgically removed from the uterus.
The risks identified include the development in children of asthma, food allergy, gastrointestinal infections, alteration of response to food allergens, allergic rhinitis, wheezing, hay fever, gastroenteritis and infectious diseases in the early years of the baby’s life as well as the development in adults of asthma.
“These risks linked to caesarean births—whether chosen by the woman or her doctor—are higher, regardless of variables such as demographics, medical and pregnancy history, gestational age of the fetus, pregnancy complications, where the baby is born and the skills of those helping deliver the baby,” he said.
Björkstén noted that those born or who had to undergo caesarian section should not lose hope as his findings may pave the way for a means to strengthen a newly born’s immune system and lessen the chance from acquiring these risks.
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