In recent years and with the advancement of science, various studies have managed to find that there is a relationship between the way of birth and the development of babies in the future. For example, in a study a few years ago, it was found that babies born by caesarean section were more likely to suffer from allergies, because at birth they were not "contaminated" by their mothers' vaginal bacteria.
A recent study measured the differences in cognitive development between babies born by caesarean section and those born by vaginal delivery. We share the results.
In addition to the differences that exist at an immunological level between a natural birth and a C-section, it has been found that they also exist differences in cognitive development, according to this new study, conducted by the University of Melbourne in Australia.
To reach these results, differences in cognitive performance between 4 and 9 years of age were measured in 3,666 children born by caesarean section and children born by vaginal delivery. For this, data from a longitudinal study of Australian children were used, as well as different measurements, including exams of the national literature and arithmetic program.
It was found that Children born by caesarean section showed significantly lower performance than those born by natural birth. The result showed a standard deviation of up to one tenth in the arithmetic scores at the ages of 8 and 9 years.
In an interview for ABC, Dr. Cain Polidano, author of the study, comments that these are small but significant results:
"There is some evidence that shows that birth by caesarean section is related to a number of negative consequences on the health of children, including increased risks of suffering from ADHD, autism and asthma. So our research talks about that literature that shows that there is a relationship, but what we do now is show the results of another consequence, in the child's development."
Investigators they don't know for sure what causes caesarean sections to cause a delay in cognitive development, but one of his theories is precisely the study that mentioned them at the beginning, in which the bacteria of the mother who had vaginal delivery were passed to the baby at the time of birth.
"Immediately after birth by caesarean section, the bacteria present are different from those that are present during a vaginal delivery. There is a lot of information currently indicating that gut bacteria influence the nervous system"says Dr. Joel Bornstein, another of the study's authors."So we think that, although there is no way to prove it at this time, this could be the difference that drives cognitive changes later."
These results are one more reminder about the considerations we should have regarding scheduled caesarean sections. The best thing for the baby's brain is natural childbirth and caesarean sections should be performed only when they are truly necessary.
Now, while this study shows a relationship, it is no reason to alarm or scare the mothers who had a C-section (I am included). Cognitive development is something that we can also work from home, educating our children and stimulating them to learn through various activities.
Actually there are many factors that can influence this type of development and there are different ways to help the development of the brain of our babies, so although the results of the study are significant, they are not completely decisive in terms of the intellectual development of our children.
