SKIN FLORA OF THE NEWBORN

Abstract

The bacterial flora of 33 babies at the moment of birth and 410 other newborn babies was studied, using a new contact-plate method. Although the skin of babies delivered by cæsarean section was sterile, the skin of the baby at normal delivery was colonised mainly by non-pathogenic staphylococci and diphtheroid bacilli. Occasionally coliforms and streptococci were present. The pattern of skin flora was essentially uninfluenced by routine careful manipulations, including washing of the baby and forceps delivery. This suggested the existence of a characteristic natural pattern of skin flora in the newborn. There was a relative dearth of diphtheroid bacilli at birth and following a rapid increase, there was a levelling out after two days. The number of staphylococci at birth was somewhat larger and they too reached a plateau after the second day. The study was concerned with the bacterial flora of the skin of the newborn from the moment of birth over the first six days of life.