10 Entering the World of Microbes

"To be born is also to enter the world of microbes. At the very time when the baby is getting out of the mother's body, its digestive tract and all its mucous membranes are germ-free. Some hours later, there will be billions of germs in its nose, in its mouth and in its gut. The main question is 'which germs will be the first to colonize the baby's body?'..............from a bacteriological point of view, there is an inherent and fundamental difference between a vaginal birth and a caeserean birth. The human mammal had been programmed to enter the world via an orifice situated close to the maternal anus. This is a sort of guarantee that the newborn baby - particularly her digestive tract - will be immediately contaminated by a great variety of friendly germs carried by her mother. The baby born by caeserean......born in the sterile environment of operating room....is more likely to first meet the microbes that are in the air of a high-tech hospital and those that are transferred by the nursing staff.........the gut flora of a caeserean born is different from what it would be after a birth in physiological conditions........The way human beings establish their gut flora during the hours following birth is a serious issue......It is not yet well understood that the enormous gut flora (weighing up to 2 kg) is an aspect of the personality of a human being...." pp58-60

The Caeserean
Michel Odent, MD
2004 Tweet