TRANSCRIPT OF ANSWER
You might have heard of the word microbiome, or you might not. You might have heard of gut bacteria. It’s all the same thing. And microbiome essentially means micro meaning microscopic. Biome is a field of study about life. So it’s, it’s the, it’s looking at the microscopic world and that makes it sound so simple, but it’s like an onion. Peel back all the layers. And when you peel back the layers, you realize how are our human cells interact with our bacterial cells? This is integral to human health. And, and this happens on a microscopic level and it’s, it’s, it’s quite a thing to get your head around. So imagine yourself, you look in the mirror, you see human, but actually, if you look through a microscope, you’d see that the human body is comprised of trillions of human cells working in harmony with trillions of microorganisms. And these microorganisms include bacteria, viruses, fungi, and, and that’s the human microbiome. So my body, your body is composed of human cells and microorganisms. So together you’re part microbe, part human. And what scientists have discovered, this is the really exciting part that the, the, uh, the baby’s microbiome is founded. The main seeding event for founding the infant microbiome happens in the kind of narrow window that surrounds childbirth. So, if you have a vaginal birth, the mother’s bacteria is transferred to the baby, so her mother’s vaginal bacteria, gut bacteria, and the bacteria within a breast milk, these are all transferred to the baby. And this sets up the baby’s microbiome and how that is set up, during those kinds of days, weeks, months, even a first two or three years after birth, that will determine the child’s health the rest of its life.
