Breastfeeding and health benefits for the mother-infant dyad: a perspective on human milk microbiota

Breast milk is a distinct nourishment that has an ever-changing composition tailored to the individual infant. Breastmilk has significant health benefits to both the infants and mothers including lowering risks of diseases and improving defense against pathogens through the microbiota. Several factors, affect the composition of the microbiota, with breastfeeding as one of the restorative components,  and is a key indicator for an infant's intestinal microbiota. It harbors its own microbiome and other bioactive components, thus helping establish the infant’s gut microbiome. Prof. Dinleyici discusses the individuality of human milk as influenced by  geography, maternal diet, maternal health, social network density, gestational age, lactation stage, and mode of feeding. He also expounds on the origin of the microbiota, and shares results from a study on how the human milk composition is related with gestational age, delivery mode, and birth weight.