Cesarean Education in the News

How important is nutrition in pregnancy? Very.

Women with a vitamin D deficiency were almost 4 times more likely to have a cesarean than those with [normal] vitamin D levels," says senior study author Anne Merewood, an assistant pediatrics professor at Boston University School of Medicine. "Vitamin D is definitely involved in muscle strength…. contractions of the uterus [which is made of smooth muscle] may not be performing as well as they could be," making it difficult for the woman to help push the baby out herself. - Vitamin D deficiency ups risk of C-section deliveries, study says

It reminds me again of how nutrition does not just affect our and our babies health, but our reproductive and birthing health - and in more ways than we currently know!

It is thought that these genetic changes, which differ from normal vaginal deliveries, could explain why people delivered by C-section are more susceptible to immunological diseases such as diabetes and asthma in later life, when those genetic changes combine with environmental triggers.

Blood was sampled from the umbilical cords of 37 newborn infants just after delivery and then three to five days after the birth. It was analysed to see the degree of DNA-methylation in the white blood cells - a vital part of the immune system.

This showed that the 16 babies born by C-section exhibited higher DNA-methylation rates immediately after delivery than the 21 born by vaginal delivery. Three to five days after birth, DNA-methylation levels had dropped in infants delivered by C-section so that there were no longer significant differences between the two groups.

“Delivery by C-section has been associated with increased allergy, diabetes and leukaemia risks” says Professor Mikael Norman, who specialises in paediatrics at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. “Although the underlying cause is unknown, our theory is that altered birth conditions could cause a genetic imprint in the immune cells that could play a role later in life. - C-section births cause genetic changes that may increase odds for developing diseases in later life

Very interesting article. It makes me think that more follow up studies should be done on cesarean born babies as they mature to childhood and adulthood, especially comparatively to their non-cesarean born siblings.

And, some somewhat related oddity, a shark has an accidental cesarean.