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      The views of pregnant women in New Zealand on vaginal seeding: a mixed-methods study

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          Abstract

          Background

          Vaginal seeding is the administration of maternal vaginal bacteria to babies following birth by caesarean section (CS), intended to mimic the microbial exposure that occurs during vaginal birth. Appropriate development of the infant gut microbiome assists early immune development and might help reduce the risk of certain health conditions later in life, such as obesity and asthma. We aimed to explore the views of pregnant women on this practice.

          Methods

          We conducted a sequential mixed-methods study on the views of pregnant women in New Zealand (NZ) on vaginal seeding. Phase one: brief semi-structured interviews with pregnant women participating in a clinical trial of vaginal seeding ( n = 15); and phase two: online questionnaire of pregnant women throughout NZ (not in the trial) ( n = 264). Reflexive thematic analysis was applied to interview and open-ended questionnaire data. Closed-ended questionnaire responses were analysed using descriptive statistics.

          Results

          Six themes were produced through analysis of the open-ended data: “seeding replicates a natural process”, “microbiome is in the media”, “seeding may have potential benefits”, “seeking validation by a maternity caregiver”, “seeding could help reduce CS guilt”, and “the unknowns of seeding”. The idea that vaginal seeding replicates a natural process was suggested by some as an explanation to help overcome any initial negative perceptions of it. Many considered vaginal seeding to have potential benefit for the gut microbiome, while comparatively fewer considered it to be potentially beneficial for specific conditions such as obesity. Just under 30% of questionnaire respondents ( n = 78; 29.5%) had prior knowledge of vaginal seeding, while most ( n = 133; 82.6%) had an initially positive or neutral reaction to it. Few respondents changed their initial views on the practice after reading provided evidence-based information ( n = 60; 22.7%), but of those who did, most became more positive ( n = 51; 86.4%).

          Conclusions

          Given its apparent acceptability, and if shown to be safe and effective for the prevention of early childhood obesity, vaginal seeding could be a non-stigmatising approach to prevention of this condition among children born by CS. Our findings also highlight the importance of lead maternity carers in NZ remaining current in their knowledge of vaginal seeding research.

          Supplementary Information

          The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12884-020-03500-y.

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          Most cited references30

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          Using thematic analysis in psychology

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            Delivery mode shapes the acquisition and structure of the initial microbiota across multiple body habitats in newborns.

            Upon delivery, the neonate is exposed for the first time to a wide array of microbes from a variety of sources, including maternal bacteria. Although prior studies have suggested that delivery mode shapes the microbiota's establishment and, subsequently, its role in child health, most researchers have focused on specific bacterial taxa or on a single body habitat, the gut. Thus, the initiation stage of human microbiome development remains obscure. The goal of the present study was to obtain a community-wide perspective on the influence of delivery mode and body habitat on the neonate's first microbiota. We used multiplexed 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing to characterize bacterial communities from mothers and their newborn babies, four born vaginally and six born via Cesarean section. Mothers' skin, oral mucosa, and vagina were sampled 1 h before delivery, and neonates' skin, oral mucosa, and nasopharyngeal aspirate were sampled <5 min, and meconium <24 h, after delivery. We found that in direct contrast to the highly differentiated communities of their mothers, neonates harbored bacterial communities that were undifferentiated across multiple body habitats, regardless of delivery mode. Our results also show that vaginally delivered infants acquired bacterial communities resembling their own mother's vaginal microbiota, dominated by Lactobacillus, Prevotella, or Sneathia spp., and C-section infants harbored bacterial communities similar to those found on the skin surface, dominated by Staphylococcus, Corynebacterium, and Propionibacterium spp. These findings establish an important baseline for studies tracking the human microbiome's successional development in different body habitats following different delivery modes, and their associated effects on infant health.
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              The Increasing Trend in Caesarean Section Rates: Global, Regional and National Estimates: 1990-2014

              Background Caesarean section (CS) rates continue to evoke worldwide concern because of their steady increase, lack of consensus on the appropriate CS rate and the associated additional short- and long-term risks and costs. We present the latest CS rates and trends over the last 24 years. Methods We collected nationally-representative data on CS rates between 1990 to 2014 and calculated regional and subregional weighted averages. We conducted a longitudinal analysis calculating differences in CS rates as absolute change and as the average annual rate of increase (AARI). Results According to the latest data from 150 countries, currently 18.6% of all births occur by CS, ranging from 6% to 27.2% in the least and most developed regions, respectively. Latin America and the Caribbean region has the highest CS rates (40.5%), followed by Northern America (32.3%), Oceania (31.1%), Europe (25%), Asia (19.2%) and Africa (7.3%). Based on the data from 121 countries, the trend analysis showed that between 1990 and 2014, the global average CS rate increased 12.4% (from 6.7% to 19.1%) with an average annual rate of increase of 4.4%. The largest absolute increases occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (19.4%, from 22.8% to 42.2%), followed by Asia (15.1%, from 4.4% to 19.5%), Oceania (14.1%, from 18.5% to 32.6%), Europe (13.8%, from 11.2% to 25%), Northern America (10%, from 22.3% to 32.3%) and Africa (4.5%, from 2.9% to 7.4%). Asia and Northern America were the regions with the highest and lowest average annual rate of increase (6.4% and 1.6%, respectively). Conclusion The use of CS worldwide has increased to unprecedented levels although the gap between higher- and lower-resource settings remains. The information presented is essential to inform policy and global and regional strategies aimed at optimizing the use of CS.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                w.cutfield@auckland.ac.nz
                Journal
                BMC Pregnancy Childbirth
                BMC Pregnancy Childbirth
                BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
                BioMed Central (London )
                1471-2393
                12 January 2021
                12 January 2021
                2021
                : 21
                : 49
                Affiliations
                [1 ]A Better Start – National Science Challenge, Auckland, New Zealand
                [2 ]GRID grid.9654.e, ISNI 0000 0004 0372 3343, Liggins Institute, , University of Auckland, ; Private Bag, Auckland, 92019 New Zealand
                [3 ]GRID grid.254880.3, ISNI 0000 0001 2179 2404, Dartmouth College, ; Hanover, NH USA
                [4 ]GRID grid.8993.b, ISNI 0000 0004 1936 9457, Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, , Uppsala University, ; Uppsala, Sweden
                [5 ]GRID grid.13402.34, ISNI 0000 0004 1759 700X, Children’s Hospital, , Zhejiang University School of Medicine, ; Hangzhou, China
                Article
                3500
                10.1186/s12884-020-03500-y
                7802193
                33435920
                6c0d3b53-d9e7-4be7-9c50-ae3f03c0f390
                © The Author(s) 2021

                Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

                History
                : 16 July 2020
                : 16 December 2020
                Funding
                Funded by: A Better Start - National Science Challenge
                Funded by: Heath Research Council of New Zealand
                Categories
                Research Article
                Custom metadata
                © The Author(s) 2021

                Obstetrics & Gynecology
                microbiome,beliefs,understanding,mothers,pregnancy,caesarean section
                Obstetrics & Gynecology
                microbiome, beliefs, understanding, mothers, pregnancy, caesarean section

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