Reply Re: “Amniotic fluid from healthy term pregnancies does not harbor a detectable microbial community”

How and when a newborn is first colonized by microbes continues to be of great interest due to its broad implications on human health and disease. Payne et al. express their opinion about our recent study in which we characterized the virome and bacterial microbiota of amniotic fluid from 24 uncomplicated term pregnancies. We conducted additional validation studies and respond to their comments. We conclude that in amniotic fluid from healthy term pregnancies, the bacterial microbiota is indistinguishable from contamination controls, and there is no evidence of a core virome.