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Cesarean delivery may lead to increased risk of obesity among offspring
NorthCascades
Posts: 10,968 Member
Boston, MA – Individuals born by cesarean delivery were 15% more likely to become obese as children than individuals born by vaginal birth—and the increased risk may persist through adulthood, according to a large new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In addition, individuals born via cesarean delivery were 64% more likely to be obese than their siblings born by vaginal birth.
The study was published online September 6, 2016 in JAMA Pediatrics.
The researchers also found that individuals born via vaginal birth among women who had undergone a previous cesarean delivery were 31% less likely to become obese compared with those born via cesarean birth following a cesarean birth.
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/cesarean-delivery-obesity-risk-offspring/
The study was published online September 6, 2016 in JAMA Pediatrics.
The researchers also found that individuals born via vaginal birth among women who had undergone a previous cesarean delivery were 31% less likely to become obese compared with those born via cesarean birth following a cesarean birth.
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/cesarean-delivery-obesity-risk-offspring/
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Replies
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How does the method someone is born affect how they eat after they are born in childhood? Makes no sense to me. FTR- None of my c-section children are overweight by any means.9
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But like...what? I mean, is there like, skinny juice in the vag canal? How does this even work?19
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Chef_Barbell wrote: »How does the method someone is born affect how they eat after they are born in childhood? Makes no sense to me. FTR- None of my c-section children are overweight by any means.
Yeah, I'm not getting the connection. Sounds about as reliable as this:
Anecdotally, both of my kids are C-section babies and they're a perfectly normal weight.8 -
:laugh: Skinny vag juice!2
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Chef_Barbell wrote: »How does the method someone is born affect how they eat after they are born in childhood?
Absolutely no idea, but it seems to be true. If it really is, won't it be interesting to find out?3 -
NorthCascades wrote: »Chef_Barbell wrote: »How does the method someone is born affect how they eat after they are born in childhood?
Absolutely no idea, but it seems to be true. If it really is, won't it be interesting to find out?
That would be quite the study lol0 -
Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »Chef_Barbell wrote: »How does the method someone is born affect how they eat after they are born in childhood? Makes no sense to me. FTR- None of my c-section children are overweight by any means.
Yeah, I'm not getting the connection. Sounds about as reliable as this:
No cause and effect relationship has been established yet. It might be that whatever prompted the C-section delivery is also making people more prone to becoming obese. Nobody really knows yet.
From everything we know today, this doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. But it does seem to be true. That's odd. If it turns out this really is true, we'll probably learn something new when we find out how it works.3 -
NorthCascades wrote: »Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »Chef_Barbell wrote: »How does the method someone is born affect how they eat after they are born in childhood? Makes no sense to me. FTR- None of my c-section children are overweight by any means.
Yeah, I'm not getting the connection. Sounds about as reliable as this:
No cause and effect relationship has been established yet. It might be that whatever prompted the C-section delivery is also making people more prone to becoming obese. Nobody really knows yet.
From everything we know today, this doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. But it does seem to be true. That's odd. If it turns out this really is true, we'll probably learn something new when we find out how it works.
Or... like the linked graphic, it's just two things that have absolutely nothing to do with each other that coincidentally correlate.
Like this one.
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NorthCascades wrote: »Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »Chef_Barbell wrote: »How does the method someone is born affect how they eat after they are born in childhood? Makes no sense to me. FTR- None of my c-section children are overweight by any means.
Yeah, I'm not getting the connection. Sounds about as reliable as this:
No cause and effect relationship has been established yet. It might be that whatever prompted the C-section delivery is also making people more prone to becoming obese. Nobody really knows yet.
From everything we know today, this doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. But it does seem to be true. That's odd. If it turns out this really is true, we'll probably learn something new when we find out how it works.
I think more likely, obese mothers are more likely to have C-sections. The women, in turn, may continue their unhealthy lifestyle and raise children who emulate that lifestyle and become obese themselves.
But that doesn't mean that the C-section birth is what caused the child to be more prone to obesity. It's the lifestyle that that they were born into that is making them more likely to become obese. Obese women just happen to have more C-sections.
*Edit: clarification18 -
I wonder how the world got so many obese people that were born vaginally? Because until very recently, cesarean sections were done in a very limited amount of births.
Could it be from eating more calories than they burn? Shocking!5 -
and there are lots more C sections in general, and lots more obese people in general.
I call BS.1 -
NorthCascades wrote: »Chef_Barbell wrote: »How does the method someone is born affect how they eat after they are born in childhood?
Absolutely no idea, but it seems to be true. If it really is, won't it be interesting to find out?
There is a correlation, doesn't mean one caused the other. You have to have a reason to suspect cause and a mechanism to propose for the cause before you can even attempt to find out. If you don't know what the cause might be how would you even test it.NorthCascades wrote: »Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »Chef_Barbell wrote: »How does the method someone is born affect how they eat after they are born in childhood? Makes no sense to me. FTR- None of my c-section children are overweight by any means.
Yeah, I'm not getting the connection. Sounds about as reliable as this:
No cause and effect relationship has been established yet. It might be that whatever prompted the C-section delivery is also making people more prone to becoming obese. Nobody really knows yet.
From everything we know today, this doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. But it does seem to be true. That's odd. If it turns out this really is true, we'll probably learn something new when we find out how it works.
Coincidences happen, that isn't odd. It would actually be much more odd if coincidences did not happen.
If you pair enough things together eventually some of them are going to line up. You need more than that, you need a reason to believe there is a cause and you need a proposed mechanism for the cause which you can then test. If you test your hypothesis of a given mechanism and it pans out THEN you have something interesting. Otherwise you just have a correlation and a correlation alone on its own frankly should just be ignorned otherwise you just end up chasing your tail.5 -
chunky_pinup wrote: »But like...what? I mean, is there like, skinny juice in the vag canal? How does this even work?
There is a theory that states that the reason a woman tends to involuntarily move her bowels during a vaginal birth is in order to help the newborn to colonize their gut bacteria, and we know that gut bacteria has a significant impact on hunger obesity, etc.
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MeganMoroz89 wrote: »LawOfFives wrote: »chunky_pinup wrote: »But like...what? I mean, is there like, skinny juice in the vag canal? How does this even work?
There is a theory that states that the reason a woman tends to involuntarily move her bowels during a vaginal birth is in order to help the newborn to colonize their gut bacteria, and we know that gut bacteria has a significant impact on hunger obesity, etc.
I've never heard that. I've always just assumed that because you're pushing so hard and that there's been so much cramping of the muscles that that's what makes you take a *kitten* when you're giving birth (which is just a great idea, so glad that that might happen to me when I have a kid. I've always wanted to do that in front of strangers).
I've heard it, but I personally think it's kind of silly. The baby is going to get their gut flora after birth either through breast milk or through formula with added pro biotic. Breast milk, especially colostrum (which is present in the beginning before full milk production) contains tons of healthy bacteria which is transferred to baby. Bacteria also can be transferred from a mom's skin and also from their environment.
http://m.glycob.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/04/18/glycob.cws074
http://www.nature.com/jp/journal/v34/n8/full/jp201447a.html
Not to mention, the delivery room nurses dispose of mom's feces pretty quickly after it comes out, and they would be doing their best not to let it get into the baby's mouth. Feces may contain some good bacteria, but can also contain dangerous bacteria that can make a baby very sick.1 -
Cesarean. The misspelling.
My daughter is obese because she eats too much and doesn't move around enough. Of course, she could be a skinny corpse* if I stuck with a vaginal delivery since being thin is more important than living.
*She was stuck in the canal with the prospect of a broken neck.2 -
Correlation does not equal causation.
Oh JAMA - how the mighty have fallen...2 -
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Or babies who require C-sections are more likely to already be on the road to obese? Don't know.
Babies are born with different weights after all and I don't think all the difference is accounted for by mother's eating habits?
And I agree @zyxst: quite pointless study when talking life and death situations0 -
MeganMoroz89 wrote: »LawOfFives wrote: »chunky_pinup wrote: »But like...what? I mean, is there like, skinny juice in the vag canal? How does this even work?
There is a theory that states that the reason a woman tends to involuntarily move her bowels during a vaginal birth is in order to help the newborn to colonize their gut bacteria, and we know that gut bacteria has a significant impact on hunger obesity, etc.
I've never heard that. I've always just assumed that because you're pushing so hard and that there's been so much cramping of the muscles that that's what makes you take a *kitten* when you're giving birth (which is just a great idea, so glad that that might happen to me when I have a kid. I've always wanted to do that in front of strangers).
The best part is when the roaming packs of medical students and your coworker's husband come barging into the room to see the exciting parts, among other indignities. You lose all sense of shame. It's part of what makes you a mother, LOL.4 -
Well could it be associated with people who needed Cesarean's were obese to begin with and that habitual eating pattern got passed onto the child?
And the one's with vaginal births could have only gained minimal weight and were fit already before giving birth?
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Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »Chef_Barbell wrote: »How does the method someone is born affect how they eat after they are born in childhood? Makes no sense to me. FTR- None of my c-section children are overweight by any means.
Yeah, I'm not getting the connection. Sounds about as reliable as this:
No cause and effect relationship has been established yet. It might be that whatever prompted the C-section delivery is also making people more prone to becoming obese. Nobody really knows yet.
From everything we know today, this doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. But it does seem to be true. That's odd. If it turns out this really is true, we'll probably learn something new when we find out how it works.
I think more likely, obese mothers are more likely to have C-sections. The women, in turn, may continue their unhealthy lifestyle and raise children who emulate that lifestyle and become obese themselves.
But that doesn't mean that the C-section birth is what caused the child to be more prone to obesity. It's the lifestyle that that they were born into that is making them more likely to become obese. Obese women just happen to have more C-sections.
*Edit: clarification
I was just going to type this very response. And then the obese mothers will pass on their bad habits. The cycle will continue.
The "study" here, or at least the reporting on it, is shady as all get out.0 -
I believe (too lazy to look up) that formula fed babies are more likely to be obese then breastfed. So do C Section women tend to feed formula more because of their C-Section?0
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I believe (too lazy to look up) that formula fed babies are more likely to be obese then breastfed. So do C Section women tend to feed formula more because of their C-Section?
My kids are formula fed and are healthy weights.
They're also C-section babies. Double whammy!
But yeah, we make sure they're active and that they understand eating too much isn't healthy, which foods are "sometimes foods," etc. Education is likely more important.
Everyone who is obese is obese because they ate more than they burned. Not because they were formula fed, or born through c-section, or are just genetically fat. It all comes down to how much we eat.
Edited to add: The formula thing is a correlational relationship, also. Formula doesn't cause children to become obese any more than a c-section does. Just because there is a correlation does not mean there is causation.4 -
Correlation does not equal causation.
Oh JAMA - how the mighty have fallen...
There is nothing wrong with publishing a correlation as long as you don't overstate its meaning. If the authors of the manuscript took that idea and ran with it without using the appropriate language of speculation then that would be innappropriate. My assumption though is that the media went ahead and did that for them.4 -
BS. My daughter was a CS baby who was breastfed for 7 mos then formula fed. She is slim and healthy, and had some difficulty gaining enough weight early on. She was larger than average at birth (8 lb 8 oz) but nothing extreme. I was overweight but fit and not morbidly obese. She was born via CS because she was just too big to pass through my pelvis--because my pelvis is small, not because she's excessively large. People have C-sections at all sizes and for a number of reasons. As other posters have stated, correlation =/= causation.0
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Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »Chef_Barbell wrote: »How does the method someone is born affect how they eat after they are born in childhood? Makes no sense to me. FTR- None of my c-section children are overweight by any means.
Yeah, I'm not getting the connection. Sounds about as reliable as this:
No cause and effect relationship has been established yet. It might be that whatever prompted the C-section delivery is also making people more prone to becoming obese. Nobody really knows yet.
From everything we know today, this doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. But it does seem to be true. That's odd. If it turns out this really is true, we'll probably learn something new when we find out how it works.
I think more likely, obese mothers are more likely to have C-sections. The women, in turn, may continue their unhealthy lifestyle and raise children who emulate that lifestyle and become obese themselves.
But that doesn't mean that the C-section birth is what caused the child to be more prone to obesity. It's the lifestyle that that they were born into that is making them more likely to become obese. Obese women just happen to have more C-sections.
*Edit: clarification
This. *If* there is actually a connection between the two, my guess would be this.1 -
This idea popped up a few years ago. There's actually some evidence for it. I'm not going to stake my reputation on it one way or the other, but I will note that my friends have been electing to have their infant's bodies and faces "colonized" with bacteria scraped from the mother when they have cesarean births for a couple of years now.3
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I think women have c-sections for many different reasons that don't all boil down to being obese. My 1st was an emergency c-section preemie. Then I had successful 2 vbacs. For my last baby, I couldn't find a doctor that would do another vbac for me & I was forced to have another c-section. It was ridiculous. I went into pre-term labor (of course), so they had to get me into an operating room to get the baby out before I delivered. All of my children were preemies & my pregnancies were high risk so even if I were comfortable with home birth (which I'm not), it wouldn't have been an option for me. I think it's pretty common for women to be forced into a c-section once they've had one, no matter what their weight or condition. At least here in my area of the US.1
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Aaron_K123 wrote: »Correlation does not equal causation.
Oh JAMA - how the mighty have fallen...
There is nothing wrong with publishing a correlation as long as you don't overstate its meaning. If the authors of the manuscript took that idea and ran with it without using the appropriate language of speculation then that would be innappropriate. My assumption though is that the media went ahead and did that for them.
And so the cycle begins...
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