When it comes to childhood obesity, there are a lot of factors that have been blamed: processed food, portion sizes, and poverty, to name just a few. But what if childhood obesity isn’t simply about how kids live, but the manner in which they are born? A new study suggests that children delivered via C-section are twice as likely to be obese by their third birthdays than those delivered vaginally.
Dr. Matthew Gillman is the senior author if the new study and director of the Obesity Prevention Program at Harvard Medical School. Rachael Larimore believes that studies like Dr. Gillman’s should be taken with a grain of salt. Rachael is managing editor at Slate.com and she’s had three Cesarean sections.