On this week’s mini-lectures and primary research article, gut microbiota of mother and infant was the main focus. The microbiota of mother and infant is interconnected, women could change their behaviors during pregnancy in order to change their vaginal microbial community. The most interesting findings from this week were the mode of delivery could change the newborn microbiome.
The 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 are:
-Mode of delivery; microbiota of newborn would be different between vaginal and C-section. Newborns that delivered by C-section would have microbiota alike to our skin microbiota; however, delivered by C-section would have a potential of getting antibiotic resisted microbiota.
-Human milk microbiome; microbiome in human milk is good and help infants to build up a good gut microbiome.
-Pre- and postnatal antibiotic exposure; a mother who consumed antibiotics during pregnancy could affect the intrapartum antibiotic intervention.
-Diet composition; diet plays a primary role in changing gut microbiome composition before two years old. Brestmilk feeding baby and formula feeding baby have a different microbiome composition after 2 years old.
