Parents are faced with a lot of difficult questions when they’re getting ready to give birth. Should the mother get an epidural? Is saving umbilical cord blood worth it? They may even ponder eating the placenta.
Now add to the list whether to follow a trend known as “vaginal seeding.” The practice involves swabbing the vagina of women who are going to have a cesarean delivery and then wiping the fluids on the baby. The hope is to give the baby the bacteria it would have been exposed to during vaginal delivery and help kickstart a healthy gut microbiome.
