Toni Harman - Your Baby’s Microbiome. The Critical Role of Vaginal Birth and Breastfeeding for Lifelong Health

Praise for Your Babys Microbiome

Toni Harman and Alex Wakeford shine the brightest of spotlights on the importance of birth and early infancy. Your Babys Microbiome is compelling and informativea must read for parents-to-be.

Dr. Rodney Dietert , professor of immunotoxicology, Cornell University; author of The Human Superorganism

You thought you were human. But youre actually a multi-species ecosystem. We all cohabitate with bacteria, fungi, protists, and even microscopic animals, and scientists are discovering that the way we treat the microbial companions that live in us and on us has a lasting impact on our health. Exploring what we know about the role symbionts play in childbirth and the early days of a babys life, Your Babys Microbiome is a fascinating read for anyone interested in what it means to be human.

Jennifer Margulis , PhD, award-winning journalist; author of Your Baby, Your Way ; coauthor, with Paul Thomas, MD, of the bestselling The Vaccine-Friendly Plan

For expectant families, this is the must-read book of this generation. As an advocate for parents, focusing on how the maternal environment changes the long-term health outcomes for the baby, this book is adding a critical piece to the puzzle of health for our children. The seeding and feeding of a childs microbiome could potentially be one of the most important lessons for parents. This timely information should be included as part of every childbirth education and newborn care class. Your Babys Microbiome will help parents truly make informed decisions about how and where they give birth and how they feed and care for their baby. It is a must for every woman giving birth.

Laurel Wilson , IBCLC, CLE, CLD, CCCE, coauthor of The Attachment Pregnancy

Our expanding understanding of the roles of the microbiome and epigenetics in health and disease is profoundly changing maternity care and public health for the better. The conversational style and clear explanations in Your Babys Microbiome by some of the worlds leading scientists and maternity care providers make this new and complex information accessible and inspiring to the general public. We now know ways to support the role of healthy microbes in our bodies and in our environment to improve our lifelong health and well-being.

Penny Simkin , author, doula, and birth educator

How we give birth and feed our babies should be choices, not something for which we have to fight for support. A huge thank you to Toni Harman and Alex Wakeford for adding to a critical perspective on the individual and global impacts of some of those choices, in hopes that this conversation will keep goingpushing our maternity care systems to support physiological processes, as well as medicalized ones.

Cristen Pascucci , founder, Birth Monopoly; cocreator, Exposing the Silence Project; vice president, Improving Birth (20122016)

Your Babys Microbiome is essential reading for every expectant parent, grandparent, and anyone who works with or cares about childbirth, and the health and well-being of the next generations. It opens the door to what our intuition already knowsthat disturbing natures well-orchestrated design in childbirth has short- and long-range health risks. You can make a difference and turn this potential health disaster around. Knowledge is power, and Toni and Alex have put the power into your hands.

Debra Pascali-Bonaro , founder and president, Pain to Power; director of the award-winning documentary Orgasmic Birth: The Best-Kept Secret ; coauthor of Orgasmic Birth: Your Guide to a Safe, Satisfying, and Pleasurable Birth Experience

I hope this extremely useful and informative book will be widely distributed and widely read, and that its findings will change birthing practice in this country and around the world!

Robbie Davis-Floyd , PhD, senior research fellow, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas Austin; author of Birth as an American Rite of Passage ; lead editor of Birth Models That Work

Disclaimer

This book is intended to give general insight into the latest science about the microscopic events that could be happening during childbirth. This book is for general information only. The information given in this book should not be treated as a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment that you may need.