Sharing the germs with your baby

My son was born via C-section. That definitely was not the way that I wanted to go, but that is the path we had to take. And at the end of the day, I had a healthy baby boy, so that is all that mattered to me. I did the skin-to-skin contact and breastfed him as soon as I was able because I had read so much research on those connections being important to a newborn.

What I never considered was that because he was born via C-section means that he may have missed out on some important Mommy germs found in the birth canal.

Researchers, however, are starting to experiment on ways to change that. And it is simple: Within two minutes of the baby being born, nurses are swabbing the baby with some microbes from the birth canal. The data is still out on whether this is keeping babies as healthy as those that pick up the microbes naturally, but since the procedure is so simple, I don't see how it could possibly hurt (as long as Momma is otherwise healthy).

With so many other options available for birth plans, I wouldn't be surprised if this one starts to make an appearance as a popular request.

What was the most important thing to you as you filled out your birth plan? Tell me in the comments.