Your Baby's Microbiome

The microbiome that lives in your child's body is a vital, synergistic part of overall health.  We are only now beginning to scratch the surface as to the importance of these microscopic organisms that colonize our bodies.  We do know that early disruptions in the balance of gut bugs can have very far reaching consequences on our children's lifelong health. In this episode of Kids Health Revolution Radio we will talk about the new book Your Baby's Microbiome.  Authors Toni Harman and Alex Wakeford lay out for us the absolutely critical role that vaginal birth and breastfeeding play in laying the foundation for your child's health throughout their lives. They break down the latest science and research on the microbiome and health, how modern birth interventions impact the microbiome and how caesarean section affects disease. Information is power and this information will help you make the best most informed decisions for bringing your child into this world.  We will also talk about what we can do about it if our birth plan did not unfold as ideally as we had planned or we didn't have this information before our first children were born! Let's face it, it happens and there are indeed steps you can take to help support your child's bacterial diversity. 

Get Informed – Take Action – Get Results

Toni Harman and Alex Wakeford are partners, parents and professional filmmakers who met at the London Film School more than twenty years ago. Over recent years, they have made four feature-length films that have been distributed internationally including Doula! and Freedom for Birth a documentary about human rights in childbirth.

Their most recent film, Microbirth (2014)—about how birth impacts a baby's lifelong health—won the Grand Prix Award at the Life Sciences Film Festival in Prague. The production of this film inspired the book we are talking about today as they wanted to be able to delve deeper and give people more in-depth guidance than was possible with the film.