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Babies Born Via C-Section Will Be More Prone To Asthma And Allergies, Here's Why

By Sreya Dutta

It's been a general rumour everywhere that those children who are born via the Cesarean section surgery might be more likely in the risk of developing allergies and mainly asthma.

Risk Of Asthma Tied To C-section Deliveries:

Cesarean section or c-section rather than the normal vaginal deliveries might raise the risks of asthma and other allergies because it interferes with the immune system development of the child, according to new studies. Many researchers have said that the previous studies suggested that the babies who were born via c-sections are much more likely to risk developing asthma and other allergies, although the reasons were unclear initially.

asthma and c sections

These studies suggest that those babies who are born via the C-section have somewhat impaired immune cell functions because of the suppression of their regulatory T cells, which generally regulate development and functions of their immune system.

The notable and famous researcher, Ngoc Ly, MPH, MD, who is the California University assistant professor of pediatrics at San Francisco, has said in a news release that he believes that this discovery from these researches are a bit of a big deal, since it shows that the delivery mode might be a really important factor that influences the development of the immune system.

Link Between Asthma And C-Section Delivery: The Explanation

In the researches and studies that have been presented at the 2008 conference of the American Thoracic Society in Toronto, the researchers had compared the T-cell suppression in these inner city newborns' group who had an asthma-affected family history which put them at an increased risk for developing childhood asthma.

The T-cell suppression of their system was measured by the analysis of the cord blood of these babies. After the examination, the results suggested that the c-section-delivery-born children had somewhat of a reduction in their T-cell suppression function when compared to the other normal delivery born children with an average T-cell suppression index.

What Researchers Say About This Link:

The notable professor and researcher, Ly suggested that probably the process of labour and the stress associated with it itself or even a sort of exposure to some specific microbes that might happen through birth canals in vaginal delivery rather than the C-section delivery might influence the neonatal immune responses in the babies.

He said that such findings are also quite preliminary and further researches and examinations are required in order to explore the potential mechanisms for associating the mode of delivery and the neonatal immune responses of the babies.

But other researchers have pointed out that this study has provided quite a probable biological explanation when it comes to the previous reports of this association between asthma and cesarean-section deliveries.

Reasons Why C-section Deliveries Might Cause Allergies & Asthma In Babies:

Indian pulmonary experts recently expressed that the rate these days at which the C-section deliveries are rising in popularity are increasing the number of risks of asthma cases in children. They expressed that this was because of the C-section delivery of the children under risky conditions or under early delivery cases.

These babies tend to have quite immature lungs that make them somewhat prone to and at a higher risk of picking up the inflammatory diseases in the early years of their life, although this is not at all the only cause for developing asthma.

The other types of factors are the falling breastfeeding rate, the role of environment and also the overuse of medicines such as antibiotics, which is especially evident in children. The eminent doctor from the respiratory medicine department, Dr. Ved Prakash pointed out a few factors or reasons that might contribute to this link between asthma and caesarian deliveries.

1. Environmental Factors: There are many environmental factors that modify the genetics of the mothers during their pregnancy, which might lead to their children being affected with asthma after they are born. Active or passive smoking or the uses of tobacco or tobacco products might be some causes behind this.

2. Painless Delivery: Sometimes, deliveries done without pain generally do not allow the women the required time to reach the exact ripe state for the normal delivery process and this might lead to an early predisposition of diseases such as asthma in such newborns.

3. Decrease In Breastfeeding: The decrease in breastfeeding by the mothers to their babies also has a very indirect impact on them developing asthma. The total avoidance of breastfeeding might lead to the child developing lower immunity that will in turn adversely affect their lungs too.

4. Overuse Of Antibiotics And Steroids: The overuse of such drugs tends to cause both the severity in diseases as well as lowers the immunity. Steroids being administered in a syrup form to children, might have several adverse side effects to their system and health in general. Moreover, overuse of antibiotics also adversely affects the children being born through the C-section deliveries and leads them to develop asthma and other allergies in the early stages.

Read more about: pregnancy health asthma allergies