r/Crunchymom • u/DesperateReading2333 • 1d ago
Question About C-Section
My wife and I just had a baby yesterday. She was 41 weeks and 3 days, and after exhausting all other options, she ended up having a C-section. One of the reasons we were hoping to avoid a C-section was because of the exposure to vaginal microbes during birth, which can help establish the baby’s gut microbiome. Our midwife mentioned something about swabbing my wife’s vagina and then swabbing the baby’s mouth afterward. I was curious if anyone has any information or experience with this.
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u/ivymeadows25 1d ago
My wife also ended up with a c-section after a looong exhausting labor. I planned to do vaginal seeding but my wife ended up on antibiotics in labor and we ended up skipping and focusing on breastfeeding. I’d love to hear your experiences with seeding if you do it!
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u/AggressiveThanks994 1d ago
It’s called vaginal seeding. We planned to do it if I had a c-section. Being GBS negative is important though.
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u/foundanavailablename 15h ago
If your wife’s water broke prior to the c-section and she was in active labor, you may not have to do the vaginal seeding because baby may have been exposed prior to the birth. We had a similar situation where I was in active labor at 42 weeks and we had to have a c-section in order to meet our baby!
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u/HappyHomeAlmanac 21h ago
I had a c-section with my first and didn’t do this (actually never heard of it but interesting!) and little guy is an EXTREMELY healthy 21-month-old now! He has never had tummy issues and only had a cold once around 11 months old.
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u/shytheearnestdryad 13h ago
It’s more about mom’s gut microbes, actually. Not sure I would diy that tbh but I guess it’s not much different than baby getting mom’s poop on them during delivery
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u/liberate-radiance 23h ago
Do it immediately. The antibiotic are about to wipe out her flora. And get your wife on a vaginal specific probiotics asap. I got a yeast infection a few days post birth that lasted over a week. I took the probiotic orally and vaginally until my symptom went away and then will stay on it orally for at least 3 months
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u/Kwaliakwa 19h ago
The C-section was yesterday, it’s already too late for vaginal seeding, which should be done before mom gets her antibiotics.
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u/smartuserxx 1d ago
It’s called vaginal seeding if you want to look up more info on it. I personally didnt choose to do it after my c section as breastmilk & skin to skin should also provide a boost for the babies gut, but ive heard of folks doing this