A brief talk describing early development of the human gut microbiome: emerging research suggests microbial transfer may begin before birth via the placenta, but major colonization occurs at birth (especially vaginal delivery) and during breastfeeding and early environmental exposures. The speaker emphasizes the importance of maternal vaginal and gut health for inoculating the newborn with taxa like Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium.
You know, our gut microbiome develops. They're now thinking before birth, They used to think that fetuses were sterile and there was no bacteria in their guts until after delivery. There now is new research that things are being transferred through the placenta. But the most of the colonization, or the way bacteria gets put on and into your body and starts to grow and live there, that's called colonization. That usually happens through a vaginal delivery. It's really important that your mother has a healthy vagina when you're born and a healthy gut, because those two microbiomes are very much related and impact each other. As soon as you are born through the vaginal canal, you are inoculated with different Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium and things like that, a little yeast. And then you start nursing or breastfeeding. You're getting the skin bacteria that's on your mother's breast. You're getting what's through the breast milk. You're starting to touch the environment and put your hands in your mouth and you're starting to pick up bacteria in that way. And you're creating your microbiome that's probably going to coexist with you the rest of your.
