What’s the Deal with Seeding?

 

What is seeding?

It’s complicated. There is a body of emerging evidence that suggests that a newborns’ immune system greatly benefits from the wonderful flora they are exposed to during labour and birth. The human body has trillions of microbes in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. They assist with nutrition, protection from pathogens and building a healthy immune system. Some evidence even suggests a strong link between a healthy gut and good mental health.

When an infant passes through the birth canal during birth they are exposed to the mothers’ microbes, which colonise in (or, in layman’s terms, settle in) the baby’s gastrointestinal system. The jury is out, but certainly lots of work is being done to investigate if this part of birth benefits the infants’ immunity and if babies born by caesarean section are somehow disadvantaged because they miss out on this lovely good bacteria.

One strategy being used to combat the lack of microbes being passed to the baby in a caesarean section birth is called vaginal seeding. Women place a clean swab in to their vagina prior to a caesarean section. It is sometimes taken out in theatres and other times right before going in to the operating room. Once the baby is born, this swab is then wiped over the baby’s face and mouth.

Is seeding a good idea?

The hypothesis is good and I have no doubt, when more information is available, the concept will be somehow be tailored to be absorbed in to everyday practice. There is great potential for infants at risk such as those born prematurely. But right now, we have more questions than answers and hospital administrators and lawyers are nervous. The medical profession has a responsibility to provide best practice based on good quality evidence. They also need a good, airtight policy to guide other health professionals and their interpretation of the evidence. There is no such policy on vaginal seeding….yet.  There are also schools of thought that believe that it could introduce more harmful bacteria to the baby as well, so there is a long way to go before agreement is reached.

If health professionals assist a woman in the seeding process and the baby becomes ill with a ‘bad bug’, they become liable in the absence of good evidence and a local policy or guideline. Some women are going ahead anyway, acting on their own or with the help of independent practitioners.

It is certainly an interesting time.