Children born by caesarean section have 20% more likely to develop type 1 diabetes than those born through vaginal delivery.
To reach this conclusion, scientists at Queen's University in Belfast have reviewed 20 studies that include about 10,000 cases of children with this disease and more than one million as a control group.
To avoid the doubt of a possible influence of other risk factors discarded birth weight, maternal age, birth order, gestational diabetes and the type of diet.
The reason for the review is the search for the causes that explain the increase in cases of children with type 1 diabetes who, according to the authors, have evolved in parallel to the increase in births by caesarean section.
Focusing on our country, Spain, in the last ten years cases of type 1 diabetes have increased between 15% and 30% and caesarean sections have increased from 18.2% to 25.2%, far from 15% that WHO considers acceptable. One possible explanation would be that offered by Chris Patterson:
Type 1 diabetes occurs when the immune system destroys the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. One hypothesis suggests that being born by caesarean section can affect the development of the immune system because babies are exposed to environmental bacteria in the hospital earlier than to maternal bacteria.
The researchers add that specific studies need to be carried out to know the biological mechanism that could explain the relationship between caesarean section and diabetes.
Until this relationship is clarified, they comment that it makes no sense to avoid a C-section to avoid the risk of type 1 diabetes, although those should be limited. in which the intervention is not strictly necessary. Various studies conducted in Western countries confirm that many deliveries end up by caesarean section for reasons of organization or comfort.
