The Microbiome and Your Baby’s Immune System

How your baby is born will determine what microorganisms get where, when. It’s a beautifully-orchestrated process with lifelong implications for your baby’s health. So what if you have a cesarean birth, take antibiotics, or are not able to feed human milk? Toni Harman tells us more. Check it out!

What we talked about:

• What is the microbiome?
• Understanding the “seed-and-feed” process
• Changes in the vaginal microbiome during the 3rd trimester
• Why it’s actually amazingly good for you to poop during pushing
• Why sequence of arrival matters
• How the microbiome trains the infant’s immune system
• The increased risk of certain diseases later in life for cesarean-born babies
• Elective vs. emergency cesareans
• Labor’s apparent effect on epigenetics
• The concerns with cesarean births
• The issues with antibiotics and being GBS+
• Effects of lactation on getting things relatively back on track
• Living a microbiome-friendly life

Related resources*:

• Your Baby’s Microbiome, by Toni Harman and Alex Wakeford
• microbirth.com, Toni’s website
• Other films by Toni Harman
• Immune System and the Microbiome, video with Dr. Rodney Dietert (one of the videos from the QR codes inside the book)
• Professor Philip Steer, Group B Strep Support YouTube channel
• The Evidence on: Group B Strep, Evidence Based Birth
• How microbes train our immune system, Nature

Related Birthful episodes:

• • Your Baby’s Microbiome
  • What Does Your Poop Have to Do With Your Baby’s Microbiome?

Image courtesy of Toni Harman

About Toni Harman

Toni Harman is a documentary filmmaker turned author. Toni has spent the past 20 years producing and directing films including the documentaries Doula!, Freedom for Birth, and the multi-award winning documentary Microbirth. Her extensive research for Microbirth ignited a passion for the microbiome resulting in Toni co-authoring Your Baby’s Microbiome with her partner, Alex Wakeford.

Find out more at microbirth.com