Study finds breastmilk may deliver beneficial bacteria from mom to baby

There are very few people who are unaware of the benefits of breastfeeding for babies. Breast is best for baby. This isn’t news. What is news, however, are results from a recent study in the August 22 issue of the journal, Environmental Microbiology.  Researchers have found that breastmilk delivers beneficial bacteria from a mother’s gut to her baby’s digestive system. This helps establish good digestive health, and lays the foundation for early immunity. According to an article on HealthDay News, “Swiss researchers found the same strains of several types of beneficial bacteria in breastmilk and in mothers’ and babies’ feces.” These strains “may help establish a critical nutritional balance in the baby’s gut and may be important to prevent intestinal disorders.”  The researchers aren’t sure of the route the bacteria take, but they have confirmed the mommy to baby connection through scientific testing, sequencing and fingerprinting methods. 

Benefits of Gut Bacteria

Why is this important? Because your gut processes nutrients and is one of your body’s first lines of defense. So when a good bacterium lines a baby’s gut, it helps prevent potentially harmful bacteria from lining it instead. There are more benefits being discovered all the time about good gut bacteria. Case in point, according to an article by Brett Spiegel, contributor to the Huffington Post, “Norwegian researchers have uncovered a link between infant growth rates and specific types of bacteria that populate their newly formed digestive tracts.” Their study, in PLOS Computational Biology, involved analyzing stool samples from over 200 babies. They identified certain points in time when specific gut bacteria were associated with growth. The study authors explained, “After applying our new method, we found an indication that the composition of early life gut microbiota may be associated with how fast or slow babies grow in early life, although there is also the possibility that factors early in life affect both gut microbiota and how fast the baby grows.” Other benefits of a healthy gut microbiome include:

• It keeps the epithelium, layers of cells that line hollow organs and glands, healthy through protecting and feeding it additional nutrients
• It uses nutritional components the digestive process misses
• It manufactures fuel for gut cells in the form of short chain fatty acids
• It reduces the pH to make an unhappy environment for bad bacteria
• It supports the immune system
• It breaks up potential toxic molecules

Avoiding Bad Bacteria

Because your gut is an advantageous place to live, there are other microorganisms, such as viruses and parasites, that want to live there too. A good, or commensal, bacterium protects the gut by populating extensive areas. “By filling every available space there is no room left for potentially harmful invaders, and they get flushed out with everything else,” according to an article on Be Happy Be Healthy. Positive steps such as eating more vegetables and fruits, exercising, and feeling happy can affect the health of a gut. If your diet is high in sugar, fat, or salt, it enables bad bacteria to dominate the gut. It is always best for the mother of a preemie to try to supply her own milk for her baby, whenever possible, even if the milk needs to be supplemented with Prolacta fortifier. The baby will benefit from the probiotics of a mom’s milk as well as the added nutrition from the fortifier. Good bacteria makes for a healthier baby, and the flow of good bacteria from a mother’s gut to her newborn through breastmilk is one more reason “breast is best.”