Beneficial bacteria - yet another reason to homebirth!

[Quirky]

From today's New York Times Health section article by Jane Brody on probiotics:

link to article here

The human digestive tract is sterile at birth but rapidly acquires organisms. The first ones to become established dominate the system. Nowadays, many infants are first colonized by organisms acquired in the hospital, rather than the beneficial Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria that predominated when babies were born at home. Breast-feeding introduces beneficial bacteria, which may account for the lower incidence of allergies in breast-fed babies.

The article also says probiotics can help reduce the incidence of preterm labor, so chow down on the yogurt, kefir, cultured foods, and quality probiotic supplements, mamas!

[katja]

OMG i couldn't believe she said that. A score for the homebirth ladies! Jane Brody drives me crazy. I read her column every week just to get mad, I think.

[Quirky]

I like her for some things but not for others...she's good on nutrition, I think, but she's sooooo pro-vax I can't stand it.

[fuschiamom]

thank you for the post/link. sometimes my clients look at me like i'm a total nut about the probiotic thing. but the benefits abound. a pp mama told me yesterday that her constipation is gone after taking the probiotics. she is now trying to talk her mom into taking them.
i just posted in the health and healing forum re the same issue. i read a study a while ago that showed that bf mamas who take probiotics have higher levels of antibodies in their milk to pass on to their little ones.
and it also makes you wonder about the whole vitamin k thing. a sterile gut makes no vitamin k but maybe it is being colonized with the wrong flora (i.e. hospital birth, no probiotics) that is creating the risk of bleeding in newborns. i mean hb babies who bf well and don't get vit k, how does their blood clot? sorry for the digression, just a ot thought.