Sunday, July 31, 2016

Antibiotics, Birth, and the Microbiome: A Personal Experience

The new addition to our family!
Well July has shaped up to be an incredible month. In addition to working on some cool projects whose results you will be seeing in the near future, my wife delivered our first child. Her name is Clara and we are very excited to be welcoming her into our family. Unfortunately the road to delivery was a little bumpy (although not nearly as bad as it could have been). One aspect of the process that stood out to me was the use of antibiotics during delivery. I thought this was interesting because we hear so much about the microbiome differences between vaginal and c-section births, but not much about antibiotic treatment. This week I wanted to share my experience with you, both to shed some light on what can happen during delivery, and to provide my own thoughts on the subject.