Perinatal nutrition: How to take care of the gut microbiota?

Abstract

Summary Perinatal and postnatal nutritional environments can result in long-lasting and/or permanent consequences that may increase the risk of chronic diseases in adulthood. The impact of perinatal nutrition on infant microbiome development has been increasingly gaining interest, however scarce information can be found about nutrition on maternal microbiome. The infant microbiome plays an essential role in human health and its assembly is determined by maternal offspring exchanges of microbiota. Microbial colonization runs in parallel with the immune system maturation and has a decisive role in intestinal physiology and regulation. This process is adversely affected by several practices, including caesarean section, antibiotics, and infant formula, which have been related to a higher risk of non-communicable diseases. Limited research has been performed to assess whether nutritional status and diet lead to changes in the maternal microbiota and thus affect the infant microbial colonization process during the critical frame of life. Early microbial colonization has a decisive role on human health, and alterations in this process have been lately associated with specific diseases in the future. The aims of this review are, firstly, to update nutritional recommendations for the perinatal period and, secondly, to analyse the influence of both maternal microbiome and nutrition on infant gut microbiota development.