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!
To listen here, click the play button on the player above, or click the button below to listen in iTunes.
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 issues with Cesarean births
- The issues with antibiotics and being GBS+
- Effects of breastfeeding in getting things relatively back on track
- Living a microbiome-friendly life
Additional fabulous resources and articles:
- Your Baby’s Microbiome – get the book
- 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 on GBS+
- Group B Strep in Pregnancy: Evidence for Antibiotics and Alternatives, from Evidence Based Birth
- How microbes train our immune system
Related Birthful episodes:
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- Your Baby’s Microbiome, with Dr. Rodney Dietert
- Your Pregnancy Microbiome, with Anne Estes
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
Title music: “Vibe Ace” by Kevin MacLeod, from the Free Music Archive / CC BY (edited for length).
Sponsorship music: “Air Hockey Saloon” by Chris Zabriskie, from the Free Music Archive / CC BY (edited for length).
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