Presentation Information

Determinants of The Infant Microbiome and Childhood Obesity: Mom Matters

• Speaker: Noel Mueller , PhD, MPH
• Presentation Type:
• Duration: 60 Mins
• Credits: 1 CERP, 1 Nursing CEU, 1 CME, 0.1 Midwifery CEU

Abstract:

Humans acquire a rich microbial ecosystem from their mothers during natural labor. Deterministic of this microbial acquisition are myriad factors, including maternal health, use of antibiotics, and diet/lifestyle during pregnancy, and, perhaps most strongly, delivery mode. In addition to shaping newborn microbial acquisition, these perinatal factors, in particular delivery mode, are associated with the future risk for the offspring in developing modern metabolic diseases such as obesity. As such, seeding the newborn with the “right” microbes at birth holds the potential for primordial disease prevention and health promotion throughout the life course. This talk will motivate the importance of mother-to-newborn transmission of microbiota for prevention of metabolic diseases, highlight recent original research, and put forward a research agenda in this arena.