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!
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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:
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