How To Promote Gut Health & Boost Infant Immunity During Pregnancy

It’s your first pregnancy and you’re feeling scared. Having come through a pandemic, you find yourself constantly worrying about your little one’s health and immunity. You’re not alone—concerns about the baby’s health are top of mind for many expectant mothers (1,2). With so many things feeling outside of your control, it’s easy to be overwhelmed and forget about the things you can control.

When it comes to health and immunity, the adage “you are what you eat” has come back into the limelight, and that’s still relevant during pregnancy. If you’ve been reading about pregnancy nutrition, you’ve likely heard about diet-related changes affecting your “gut immunity” or “maternal microbiota.” You’ve read that it impacts your baby’s health but may not understand how it all connects.

A good starting point is understanding the gut microbiota and its role in keeping you healthy. The key players here are bacteria (3). One feature of a healthy gut is the presence of a lot of “good” bacteria, which interact with your immune cells and “teach” them to differentiate between harmful and harmless invaders. This trains the immune system to only attack the “bad” bacteria (4–6).

These protective benefits are not limited to you. Scientists used to believe that the fetal environment was sterile. However, they now know that your microbiota during pregnancy can influence the development of your infant’s microbiota and their immunity (7). Studies have found maternal bacteria in the amniotic fluid, the umbilical cord, and even the placenta (7–9). These good bacteria can train the infant’s immune system to be more efficient before they’re even born (4)!

Diet is a key factor affecting the levels of good bacteria in your gut (10,11). Therefore, dietary interventions that promote healthy microbiota during pregnancy will, in turn, boost your baby’s immunity (11–14).

What happens is that the good bacteria in your gastrointestinal (GI) tract interact with your immune cells and the nutrients you consume. Through these interactions, an array of small molecules are produced. These molecules can be transferred to the baby to help their immune system develop and strengthen (7,9,12).

Now that you have a better understanding of how your diet, microbiome, and immunity are related, digesting the information around pregnancy nutrition should be feeling a little less overwhelming. The next step is considering how what you eat while pregnant might benefit your little one.

The scientific discourse around specific foods is ongoing, but there has been some consensus around the benefits of certain dietary factors in relation to gut health and infant immunity. For example, a high-fiber diet in pregnant mothers has been shown to increase the diversity of good bacteria in infants’ microbiota (9,12). It’s also been associated with a decreased susceptibility to allergies and asthma in infants (7,15). Luckily, increasing your dietary fiber is pretty easy as it’s found in a variety of plant-based foods and quite a few grains.

Certain vitamins are also considered beneficial for both you and your baby. For instance,  vitamin A can help promote long-term protective antibodies in infants (7). If you’re looking to add more vitamin A into your diet, consider animal-sourced foods like eggs or dairy. Vitamin D is associated with increased numbers of beneficial gut bacteria and improves gut health by reducing the risk of intestinal infections (7,13). Few foods contain this vitamin naturally, but you can always take supplements.

There’s also been a lot of talk about prebiotics and probiotics. Prebiotics are foods that promote the growth of beneficial bacteria, while probiotics are the live bacteria themselves.9 Appropriate probiotics can boost maternal immunity by decreasing the risk of inflammation and boost infant immunity by reducing the incidence of respiratory and GI conditions (4,9). Similarly, prebiotics can help maintain the integrity of the gut, preventing infections and keeping the good bacteria in your microbiota happy (3,4,9). With that in mind, you may want to think about incorporating prebiotic and probiotic foods such as oats and yoghurt into your diet.

Adding fiber, vitamins, prebiotics, and probiotics to your diet is important, but you also need to consider which foods should be avoided. Foods with high saturated fat levels have been consistently associated with a depletion of beneficial gut bacteria and an increased risk of the development of inflammatory conditions like eczema in infants (9,12,13). It might take some getting used to, but try to avoid fatty cuts of meat and look for low-fat alternatives, such as lean meats or fish.

With so many factors you can’t control, it’s not surprising your first pregnancy has you feeling anxious about your baby’s health. You’d heard that improving your gut health could help keep you and your baby healthy, and now you understand why. If you’re eager to get started, make sure to book an appointment with your gynecologist to learn more about what dietary changes are best suited for you.

References

1.         Hildingsson I, Larsson B. Women’s worries during pregnancy; a cross-sectional survey using the Cambridge Worry Scale in a rural area with long distance to hospital. Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare. 2021;28:100610. doi:10.1016/j.srhc.2021.100610

2.         Bayrampour H, Ali E, McNeil DA, Benzies K, MacQueen G, Tough S. Pregnancy-related anxiety: A concept analysis. International Journal of Nursing Studies. 2016;55:115-130. doi:10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2015.10.023

3.         Edwards SM, Cunningham SA, Dunlop AL, Corwin EJ. The Maternal Gut Microbiome during Pregnancy. MCN Am J Matern Child Nurs. 2017;42(6):310-317. doi:10.1097/NMC.0000000000000372

4.         Sanz Y. Gut microbiota and probiotics in maternal and infant health. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2011;94:S2000-S2005. doi:10.3945/ajcn.110.001172

5.         D’Argenio V. The Prenatal Microbiome: A New Player for Human Health. High Throughput. 2018;7(4):38. doi:10.3390/ht7040038

6.         Yao Y, Cai X, Chen C, et al. The Role of Microbiomes in Pregnant Women and Offspring: Research Progress of Recent Years. Frontiers in Pharmacology. 2020;11. Accessed April 6, 2023. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2020.00643

7.         Kalbermatter C, Fernandez Trigo N, Christensen S, Ganal-Vonarburg SC. Maternal Microbiota, Early Life Colonization and Breast Milk Drive Immune Development in the Newborn. Frontiers in Immunology. 2021;12. Accessed April 6, 2023. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2021.683022

8.         Dunn AB, Jordan S, Baker BJ, Carlson NS. The Maternal Infant Microbiome: Considerations for Labor and Birth. MCN Am J Matern Child Nurs. 2017;42(6):318-325. doi:10.1097/NMC.0000000000000373

9.         Miko E, Csaszar A, Bodis J, Kovacs K. The Maternal–Fetal Gut Microbiota Axis: Physiological Changes, Dietary Influence, and Modulation Possibilities. Life (Basel). 2022;12(3):424. doi:10.3390/life12030424

10.       David LA, Maurice CF, Carmody RN, et al. Diet rapidly and reproducibly alters the human gut microbiome. Nature. 2014;505(7484):559-563. doi:10.1038/nature12820

11.       Gohir W, Whelan FJ, Surette MG, Moore C, Schertzer JD, Sloboda DM. Pregnancy-related changes in the maternal gut microbiota are dependent upon the mother’s periconceptional diet. Gut Microbes. 2015;6(5):310-320. doi:10.1080/19490976.2015.1086056

12.       Mirpuri J. Evidence for maternal diet-mediated effects on the offspring microbiome and immunity: Implications for public health initiatives. Pediatr Res. 2021;89(2):301-306. doi:10.1038/s41390-020-01121-x

13.       Mandal S, Godfrey KM, McDonald D, et al. Fat and vitamin intakes during pregnancy have stronger relations with a pro-inflammatory maternal microbiota than does carbohydrate intake. Microbiome. 2016;4(1):55. doi:10.1186/s40168-016-0200-3

14.       Daliry A, Pereira ENG da S. Role of Maternal Microbiota and Nutrition in Early-Life Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Nutrients. 2021;13(10):3533. doi:10.3390/nu13103533

15.       Calatayud M, Koren O, Collado MC. Maternal Microbiome and Metabolic Health Program Microbiome Development and Health of the Offspring. Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism. 2019;30(10):735-744. doi:10.1016/j.tem.2019.07.021