The Bacterial therapy in pregnancy to drive the intra-partum colonization of newborns

Abstract

Recently, a very interesting paper has been published on Nature Medicine. The Authors have clearly shown the relevancy of a close contact between mother and newborn to effect appropriate passage of microbes to her infant [1]. They have demonstrated that it is possible to get partial restoration of the microbiota of cesarean-born infants by exposing them to maternal vaginal fluids. Vaginal microbe transfer to cesarean-born infants makes them “microbially” similar to vaginally delivered infants. Epidemiological studies have clearly shown an association between cesarean-section delivery and increased risk of obesity, asthma, allergies and immune deficiencies [2-5]. The authors’ attempts to establish an appropriate microbiota in cesarean-born infants by exposing them to the mothers’ vaginal fluids demonstrates the importance of mother-infant microbe transfer and highlights, as a next step, the importance of specifically- directed “manipulation” of the pre-term maternal microbiota in order to further optimize and enrich this transfer process.