Early birth and health....what about the obvious?

I meant to blog about this last week, but didn't get round to it.   There were lots of new stories a couple of  weeks ago that  babies born even a couple of weeks early have more health problems.

Babies born a few weeks early 'suffer health risks'

Babies born just a few weeks early have a higher risk of poor health, including asthma, than those born later, research suggests.

I think they missed a big confounding factor in this analysis - caesarian birth.    Lots of those early births are due to C sections and that brings us back to microbiota.  Babies born by C section miss out on being exposed to a bunch of healthy bacteria from the birth canal......maybe that is causing the health problems?

Babies delivered via cesarean section show different microbial profiles than those born vaginally—whereas vaginally delivered infants are colonized at first by fecal and vaginal bacteria from the mother, infants born through cesarean section are exposed initially to bacteria originating from the hospital environment and health care workers.