Prompt: List and describe potential factors that the mother or the infant could be exposed to that could influence the colonization of the microbial community in the newborn infant (in positive or negative ways).
It is said that if a mother is having a healthy pregnancy there will be more bacteria and the composition of the bacteria in the microbiota will change as well. The majority of changes come during the 3rd trimester when there is beta diversity. This leads to the mother gaining weight, having higher levels of fecal cytokines, and more insulin insensitivity. All three of these changes are needed for a growing fetus.
A factor that influenced both mother and baby was that the mother’s BMI before pregnancy impacted the baby’s gut microbiota composition. However, we know that the mode of birth impacts the microbiota so this correlation was only shown in vaginally delivered babies.
The oral microbiota is found to be different between pregnant and non-pregnant women. Pregnant women at every stage had a greater abundance of 7 bacterial species. It is believed that the immune state of pregnant women can impact their oral cavity microbiota.
Babies who are malnourished compared to healthy babies had microbiota’s that resembled a much younger infant. Therefore, nutrition is an important role in a baby’s microbiota development.
The factor that interests me the most is the influence of the microbiota based on whether the baby is breastfeeding or taking formula. Research has shown that the human milk microbiome is diverse because it has lots of bacteria. Human milk was found to be the “predominant source for establishing a “health microbiome” in the newborn.” The weight of the mother influences the composition of the microbiome, however, they do not know if there are any negative effects for the breastfeeding babies from this. There is a study from (https://letthemeatdirt.com/resources/articles/how-does-breastfeeding-childs-microbiome/) that found breastfed babies had the lowest rates of asthma which is thought to be influenced by a person’s microbiota. Not only do breastfed babies receive their mom’s milk microbiota but the skin-to-skin contact results in them receiving skin microbiota too.
