ACOG Strongly Advises Against Vaginal Seeding Outside Of Context Of Institutional Review Board-Approved Research Protocol

was the headlines today in a newsletter to ob-gyns. Vaginal seeding is the practice of actively exposing a baby born by cesarean section to maternal vaginal bacteria by wiping the baby with a cloth that was placed in the vagina or some other practice. If you’re curious read on.

The germ of an idea behind this practice makes sense–vaginal birth exposes babies to these bacteria and they probably have some role in ‘seeding’ the newborn gut. But there are several factors that affect the execution.

1)The vagina contains many types of bacteria in a particular balance maintained by the woman’s immune system.
2) Some of these bacteria can cause disease if when not kept in balance.
3) Before cesarean section, women are given antibiotics to minimize the risk of infection to her surgical wound.  These antibiotics alter the levels of many types of bacteria not only the ones we want to decrease. Therefore.
4) In order for seeding to accomplish the goal, a woman would have to capture her vaginal bacteria (your guess is as good as mine as to the appropriate tool for this) before the antibiotics were given and store them.
5) During this storage period, outside the control of the immune system, some bacteria might grow.  Which ones you ask?  Who knows.
6) Now at least one hour later, the baby is exposed to some mix of bacteria which is guaranteed to be different from the mother’s mix and may have overgrowth of disease causing bacteria.
7) And the benefit?
Maybe the baby will develop a normal mix of gut bacteria sooner.
Maybe the baby will be less likely to get infections
Maybe the baby will be healthier in the long term.
There is no research to back this up
8) So don’t do it.
9) Breastfeeding is a great way to expose baby to mom’s skin bacteria and immune system. So if you can, spend the time with baby at the breast.