Above all, the risk for the most common form of childhood leukemia, acute lymphatic leukemia (ALL), increased, shows the study where 2.5 million children born in Sweden were followed. Of these, just over 15 percent were born by planned cesarean section.
"Cesarean sections are important and life-saving in obstetric care. We do not want mothers to feel anxious about medically motivated cesarean sections", says Christina-Evmorfia Kampitsi, researcher at the Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, in a press release.
On the other hand, she means that there may be reason to discuss cesarean sections that are not medically motivated.
The risk for ALL was 21 percent higher in children born by planned cesarean section compared to children born vaginally.
Between 50 and 70 Swedish children per year are affected, and the increased risk corresponds to one extra case per year.
The fact that the risk increases may be due to the fact that children born by planned cesarean section are not exposed to stress and vaginal bacteria to the same extent as children born vaginally.
The study is published in The International Journal of Cancer.
