Babies who are delivered by C-section don’t go through the birth canal, and as a result they don’t get the beneficial microbes that babies born via the birth canal receive. This might help explain why C-section babies are at a higher risk for a variety of diseases. A recent study suggests, however, that this can be mitigated by slathering babies just after birth with a gauze pad that soaked up the microbes in the mothers’ birth canal right before birth. Why? Because it helps restore and normalize the baby’s microbiome.
