There is nothing more precious in this world than the love of a mother for her children, or is there? A mother’s love comes in different forms… the chemical form of oxytocin that is generated during childbirth that fills the mother with so much love that she has never experienced before, for her newborn… the physical form where the mother cannot let go of the urge to be close to the baby, …the microbial form… where the mother gifts the baby with something extremely special… her germs!

You read it right… Nothing in the world can compare the love of a mother with anything else. The huge responsibility every prospective mother has to ensure good pre-conception health so as to get the best health for her future children… followed by ensuring optimum nourishment of the baby during pregnancy, good exercise, mental health to support the baby, preparing for the long-drawn process of childbirth and post-partum care, goes unappreciated. There are so many considerations and many stages in a mother’s health that are critical for normal development of the baby.

What should be the most memorable time in a prospective mother’s life caring for her baby for nine months in her womb turns out to be nightmarish with the stress of preventing and circumventing all of these. With the nuclear family system, reduced support from elders because of physical distances, demanding careers, incorrect information from social media, advanced maternal (and paternal) age, the stressors only increase. Instead of the older generation feeding the mother-to-be with traditional nutrition-rich superfoods, we often see proud parents-to-be posing with fast foods and sodas (excused as “cravings”), peer pressure grows to show something similar. What starts with weird cravings now continues with infants being fed with similar kinds of not-so-natural foods.

Are these cravings really the mother’s or the baby’s? Or is someone else dictating these cravings? Can we recognize whether these are cravings at all? My “GUT” feeling says it might be someone else. Who else can dictate what we should eat if not the mother or the baby?

Given all of these, if we look at the current trend of increased risks of PCOS/PCOD, infertility, obesity, gestational diabetes, osteoporosis, cancers, we can only wonder about the causes and how to prevent these. If we look at these issues, the nutritional deficiencies that build up over the years and the increase in the risk of all kinds of diseases it causes can be prevented. Should we pause to think about all of these? After all, a happiness in a family begins with a happy, healthy mother. Can we give the gift of good health to all the mothers?

At Microbiome Superhero, we help women of all age groups learn more in engaging formats about the importance of taking care of their health.

-Team Microbiome Superhero