Pregnancy is a miraculous and life-altering journey. Everything the mother-to-be does affects the baby in some way or the other. One such element of interest is the bacteria in the gut and the changes it undergoes during gestation. The gut health of the mother designs the gut health of the child even before it is born. So, how does the bacteria in the stomach change during the term of pregnancy? How do the alterations benefit the mother? How does it influence the child? Keep reading further to find answers to these questions.
A mother’s gut
Our gut is home to a diverse variety of bacteria and they can be both good and bad. Along the course of our life, various factors determine the quality of the bacteria in our gut, some of which are genetics, stress, diet, etc. For a long time, it was believed that a child when born is sterile. Recent evidence however has debunked this myth and has established clearly that even in the womb, the baby starts cultivating the bacterial colony that will act as a starter pack for the rest of his life. The quality of this starter pack will depend on the standard of the gut bacteria in the mother.
When planning to conceive, you must improve the bacterial load in your gut through proper nutrition and lifestyle, because, a healthy maternal microbiome would mark the birth of a robust bacterial colony in the baby.
Changes in the gut during pregnancy
When a woman conceives, her body switches roles, now it hosts another individual. It needs to accommodate them and that involves many changes in the body. One such change is the alteration that happens to the gut bacteria. In the first trimester, that is the first 13 weeks of the pregnancy, there is not much change to the gut bacteria but over the second and the third trimester, there are dramatic and substantial modifications to these bacteria.
During pregnancy, the body has to get accustomed to gaining weight, hormonal changes and is easily susceptible to inflammatory responses. In retrospect, these changes are similar to that the ones that happen during a metabolic disorder like diabetes, polycystic ovaries syndrome, hypertension, etc. So, the alterations that happen in the gut bacteria too are similar to that that happens in these disorders. For a metabolic disorder, these microbial changes can have negative effects but in the context of pregnancy, these alterations have a positive effect allowing the body to support the growing baby.
Transfer of gut health from mother to child
There is a connection between a mother and child that lasts for a lifetime. This begins in the womb, via an umbilical cord that attaches the baby to the placenta of the mother. The placenta is the organ that practically feeds the baby and keeps it nourished. The quality of the maternal microbiome influences the bacteria in the placenta. The healthy placental microbiome is the precursor that determines good gut health in the baby.
When the mother to be has cultivated a healthy colony of bacteria in her stomach via proper diet and lifestyle, she will be able to transfer the same to the child. Let us talk about some ways in which the mum will be able to cultivate a healthy microbiome, consuming a lot of prebiotics like fruits, vegetables, whole grains and inclusion of probiotics like curd, kimchi, fermented idli, dosa batter, etc, with the help of right doctor and nutritionist they can add a prebiotic capsule if necessary as well, on the long run this creates the perfect ambiance for both the mother and child. Though there will be a myriad of factors that will alter the gut bacteria throughout life, this beginner bacteria cascaded from the mother to the baby will give him a kick start towards developing a healthy and sound system. A mother not only passes on her sweet smile to the baby, but she also hands him good health, immunity, and well-being.
References
- Nuriel-Ohayon M, Neuman H and Koren O (2016) Microbial Changes during Pregnancy, Birth, and Infancy. Front. Microbiol. 7:1031. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.01031
- Izaskun García-Mantrana, Marta Selma-Royo, Sonia González, Anna Parra-Llorca, Cecilia Martínez-Costa & María Carmen Collado (2020) Distinct maternal microbiota clusters are associated with diet during pregnancy: impact on neonatal microbiota and infant growth during the first 18 months of life, Gut Microbes, 11:4, 962-978, DOI: 10.1080/19490976.2020.1730294
