C-section or also known as Caesarean has been under the investigation of a group of scientists from the University of Aberdeen.
In particular, this retrospective cohort study identified full-term, single, live births in first-time mothers in Scotland between 1993 and 2007. Researchers then followed up the offspring until January 2015.
They were looking for any potential correlation between the type of delivery; planned or unscheduled caesarean or vaginal delivery and asthma, obesity at age of 5, IBS (inflammatory bowel disease), type 1 diabetes, cancer or death.
The results were published in 2015 in the Journal America Medical Association.
Planned Caesarean vs unscheduled Caesarean Delivery?
Good news! if you are planning to have a C-section it doesn’t look like it will increase chances of determining asthma, obesity, cancer, IBS or death in your new-born.
But unexpectedly offspring born by planned caesarean delivery were more likely to develop type 1 diabetes than those born by unscheduled C-section.
Planned Caesarean vs Vaginal birth?
This study found that offspring born by planned caesarean were more likely to suffer from asthma compared to those born naturally.
But no difference has been recorded in term of IBS and cancer risk when researchers were comparing those two methods of birth delivery (Ref 1).
Please bear in mind that any study comes with a potential bias, missing data, misinterpretation and limitations so further investigation is needed in order to have a clearer view on this topic.
At Nutripanda we always take into account your birth delivery when we assess your physiological status during the first consultation, as we believe that vaginal birth brings along important factors such as immunological determinants and friendly microorganism which are essential elements for offspring health.
And while we are on the subject of babies… look out for our upcoming article on Breast milk and feeding.