<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>Babies born naturally were found to have higher antibody levels than those born via Caesarian section after receiving their jabs that protect against bacteria that cause lung infections and meningitis.</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Research was carried out by a team from the University of Edinburgh, Spaarne Hospital and University Medical Centre in Utrecht and the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in The Netherlands.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Experts say the findings could help to inform conversations about C-sections between expectant mothers and their doctors and shape the design of more tailored vaccination programmes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Researchers studied the relationship between gut microbes and antibody levels after vaccination in a cohort of 120 babies vaccinated at 8 and 12 weeks against lung infections and meningitis.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The researchers tracked the development of the gut microbiome - the community of microbes that lives in our body - in the child's first year of life and their immune response to the vaccines by testing saliva samples at 12 and 18 months.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the 101 babies tested for antibodies as a result of the vaccine that protects against lung infections, the investigators found double the antibody levels in babies delivered naturally compared with those delivered by C-section.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Breastfeeding was linked with 3.5 times higher antibody levels compared with formula-fed children who had been delivered naturally.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Levels of antibodies as a result of the vaccine that protects against meningitis were tested in 66 babies. Experts found the levels of antibodies were 1.7 times higher for naturally delivered babies, regardless of breastfeeding, compared with those delivered via C-section.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The gut microbiome is seeded at birth, developing rapidly over the first few months of life, and is influenced mostly by delivery mode, breastfeeding, and antibiotic use.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The team found a clear relationship between microbes in the gut of those babies and levels of antibodies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For example, among a host of bacteria in the gut, high levels of two in particular - Bifidobacterium and E. Coli - were associated with a high antibody response to the vaccine that protects against lung infections.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">High levels of E. Coli were also linked with a high antibody response to the vaccine that protects against meningitis.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The baby acquires the Bifidobacterium and E.coli bacteria through natural birth and human milk is needed to provide the sugars for these bacteria to thrive on. HT</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>