Vaginal Seeding in Cesarean Born Infants: An Integrative Review

Abstract

This integrative review examines the various risks, benefits, and effectiveness of the vaginal seeding procedure. Vaginal seeding is a procedure in which a sterile gauze is inserted into the vagina of a pregnant woman shortly before a scheduled ceserean delivery in order to come in contact with natural maternal flora. The gauze is then swabbed over the infants face and body immediately post-delivery. This procedure seeks to establish a microbiome in infants born via ceserean which is as similar as possible to that of vaginally delivered infants.

This integrative review takes evidence from pilot studies, randomized controlled trials, an observational longitudinal study, a retrospective study, and a systematic review. The data from all of these is combined and analyzed to come to a conclusion about the safety and efficacy of vaginal seeding as a procedure.

The research concluded that there is not yet enough data for vaginal seeding to be safely recommended. On the other hand, promising early results in certain studies urge further trials to take place in the coming years to further investigate this intervention's possibility.