Research out of the Netherlands shows that babies delivered by c-section are much more likely to develop asthma and allergies than children who are delivered vaginally.

The study was done by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in Bilthoven, Holland. The Dutch researchers did a comparison of the rates of allergy and asthma in over 2,900 8-year-old children.

The risk of asthma in kids delivered by cesarean section was 79 per cent higher than kids who had been born vaginally; if one or more of the parents also had allergies, the risk of developing asthma was even higher for these children.

Researchers emphasized the interaction of both genes and environment in the development of asthmatic and allergic disease. They also pointed the finger at the increasing rates of unnecessary c-section, due to maternal request for the procedure. Parents continue to think that c-section is a “no risk” option to vaginal birth, when that is not true. While elective cesareans are safer than ever before, there are still chances for significant complications for mothers as well as babies.

While short term outcomes may appear virtually equivalent between vaginal and elective c-section, long term consequences remain for both mother and child. Mothers may develop adhesions, intestinal obstruction, bladder injury and uterine rupture over the longer term as a result of this serious surgery. In addition to the substantially higher risk of asthma for c-section children, they are also 20 per cent more prone to diabetes - another serious and chronic condition.

Parent do not appear to take these long term consequences into account when birth options are considered. Even with the known long-term risks to children, rates of c-section have risen fairly steadily in the US for the past 25 years, increasing by an astonishing 46 per cent since 1985 alone.

Today, more than 30 per cent of births in the US are c-sections.

In the same time period, both rates of allergy and asthma have been on the rise. While researchers are still not clear on all the factors that could be affecting allergy rates in children, c-section deliveries could be one.

Source: Natural News, BMJ