MYKROH
“Explores the relationship between bacteria and future health. How can we improve our health benefits through a cocktail of bacteria transferred at birth through a set of designed artifacts?”
As the baby squeezes out of the vagina during birth, a rich bacterial transfer is created that not only protects the baby from potentially life-threatening pathogens, but also becomes the basis of our personal microbiome which shapes the future of our health.
However, due to an increase in Caesarean Sections, all too often babies miss the opportunity of this natural bacterial transfer. Whilst there is a DIY community that occasionally use vaginal swabs to artificially stimulate this bacteria (called vaginal seeding), it is still not accepted in the medical community. Vaginal seeding is becoming a growing subject of interest, and it will only be a matter of time before mothers have the choice to follow this procedure in a safe and accepted environment.
MYKROH explores how this transfer can be facilitated in a less obstructive, more natural and more intuitive manner to protect the baby’s later life. Through the creation of a range of medically safe, personal products, Dia wants to allow the mother the right to choose her options at birth and provide a bacterial transfer to her baby. Newborns delivered by scheduled Cesarean section will go through the bacterial therapy immediately after birth. This transfer will mimic the natural process at a microscopic level that happens at delivery. The allocation happens in a two step process, firstly transferring skin bacteria through a special swaddle top and secondly vaginal fluids (Lactobacilli), through a vaginal pump.
It is important to address that because we live in an over-medicalized and sterile world missing the payload of good bacteria at birth creates an imbalance of the microbiome biodiversity. As a consequence, threatens our immune system.