C-Section Births Cause Genetic Changes That May Increase Odds For Developing Diseases In Later Life

Caesarean-section delivery is rapidly increasing worldwide and is currently the most common surgical procedure among women of child-bearing age. Until recently, the long-term consequences of this mode of delivery had not been studied. However, reports that link C-section deliveries with increased risk for different diseases in later life are now emerging. Our results provide the first pieces of evidence that early ‘epigenetic’ programming of the immune system may have a role to play.”



Researchers have found that babies born by Caesarean section, experience changes to the DNA pool in their white blood cells, which could be connected to altered stress levels during this method of delivery. Blood was sampled from the umbilical cords of 37 newborn infants just after delivery.This showed that the 16 babies born by C-section exhibited higher DNA-methylation rates immediately after delivery than the 21 born by vaginal delivery. Three to five days after birth, DNA-methylation levels had dropped in infants delivered by C-section so that there were no longer significant differences between the two groups. Professor Mikael Norman, who specializes in pediatrics at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden says that delivery by C-section has been associated with increased allergy, diabetes and leukaemia risks”. He also compared humans and animals by stating that, " Animal studies have shown that negative stress around birth affects methylation of the genes and therefore it is reasonable to believe that the differences in DNA-methylation that we found in human infants are linked to differences in birth stress."  The authors feel that their discovery could make a significant contribution to the ongoing debate about the health issues around C-section deliveries.