Human Microbiome: My bub gets bacteria from where?!

As science discovers more about the Human Microbiome every day, we start answering some big questions about our health and well being, and start asking even bigger questions as to why our lifestyle doesn’t support a healthy gut.

What actually happens when Bub is warm and safe in your womb?

For many years it has been thought that when Bub is inside the womb ‘protected’ by an amniotic sac, that nothing can get in or out this sac; that it is ‘sterile’. Jimenez et.al have been arguing against this belief suggesting that the mother’s gut microbiome is actually translated to Bub through the placental gas exchange (it gets through the sac). Prince et.al further state that the mother’s gut microbiome is altered throughout the pregnancy process, and entering pregnancy with a diverse and healthy gut is super important for the colonisation of healthy bacteria in your baby’s gut.

Modern daily lifestyles don’t tend to encourage ‘good gut health’ with the excessive sanitisation of our hands, bodies and houses, the common ‘antibiotics fixes everything’ perspective, poor diet, alcohol and smoking. All these factors can even cause dysbiosis, which is an excess of ‘bad’ gut bacteria and a lack of ‘good’ gut bacteria.

The natural ‘seeding’ process of Bub’s microbiome

Because this is such a huge topic, this article will focus mostly on normal microbial seeding in a vaginally birthed baby as an example.

Firstly, the baby descends through the vaginal canal and laps up the bacteria inside the vagina. Then Bub exits the vagina (crowning) and takes in the external vaginal bacteria and the faecal matter bacteria. And finally, when baby is placed on Mamma’s chest making skin-to-skin contact, it absorbs all of Mamma’s skin flora. This beautiful variety of microbiomes gives Bub’s immune system and bacterial ecosystem a fantastic kick-start!

So how do you get ‘good’ gut health?

We agree that entering your pregnancy with optimal gut health and maintaining this throughout your pregnancy is super important. And here are a few of the many potential ways you can improve gut health:

Eat fermented foods such as sauerkraut and kefir. These foods actually feed the ‘good’ bacteria in your gut, making them multiply and become stronger than the bad bacteria.
Drink less alcohol (I know, this one sucks. But if you’re pregnant you won’t be drinking anyway!)
Never smoke (Or stop immediately!)
Eat less sugar. Sugar feeds the ‘bad’ bacteria, making them multiply and become stronger than the good bacteria.
If you feel you’re already experiencing Dysbiosis, consider some prebiotic and/or probiotics (consult your health provider)

Once your gut health is on point this enables the rest of your human microbiome to get into shape as well. This means the microbiome on your skin, in your hair, in your mouth and most importantly in your vagina. Weirdly enough, this article states that the vaginal microbiome is the same as the microbiome in your mouth. (Who the heck knows how that works, but it does!)

At the end of the day, the bacteria in the vagina and the faecal matter at birth (because yes mama, you most probably WILL poop while birthing your baby) are SO important to the colonisation of your baby’s whole microbial ecosystem for life.