When most people think about a time that is crucial for a developing baby, pregnancy is usually the first thought that comes to mind. And while this is clearly a period where the health of a mother and its connection to the health of a baby is parallel, an often overlooked time period is what came before pregnancy. The preconception stage. How does the health of a mother prior to pregnancy impact the health of their future child? Let’s dive in.
Most recently, I presented at the Medical Academy of Pediatric Special Needs Conference, MAPS for short. Dr. Neuenschwander, founder of BEMC, is the President of this growing organization that provides education about chronic pediatric disorders to a multitude of medical specialties. The major theme and driving force behind the need for this group is that our children are sicker than ever before. According to the last published CDC statistics in 2021, at least 40% of children in the United States have one chronic disease - like asthma, food allergies, diabetes, epilepsy, obesity, autism, ADHD and on and on and on.
My lecture was part of the Foundations track that all new attendees interested in pursuing a fellowship with the organization must start with. I titled it Setting the Stage: Prenatal & Perinatal Foundations.
There is a great deal of emerging research that the health of the mother before conception can play a role in the developmental outcomes of that unborn child - affecting risk for autism, ADHD, learning disability, autoimmune disease, inflammatory bowel disorder, etc. These same factors can also play a role in fertility success. If we lived in a perfect world, our goal would be to impart information on optimizing the preconception phase at least a year before desired pregnancy. My ultimate goal, thinking like a true Public Health Nurse, would be to begin this educational process much earlier than one year before conception, with advertising campaigns and other creative educational outreach.
A reoccuring theme I found when putting together this lecture involved adequate nutrient levels. Did you know that higher doses of maternal vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy may have a positive association with neurodevelopmental outcomes? If you haven't already, consider getting your vitamin D level checked to ensure a high level.
Another hot topic is methylation, which is influenced by adequate B vitamins including folate. Most people don't realize that folic acid and folate are NOT one in the same. In fact, high consumption of folic acid supplements and fortified food can be a contributor to lack of folate in the fetus during development. We have a national program to fortify our food with folic acid (it’s added in breads, cereals, grains, etc.). This is a substance that isn’t even bioavailable to the unborn child. It makes you wonder the implications of this. I also lecture about iodine, omega 3 fats, Vitamin A and iron and their role in preconception and fetal development.
Another section of my lecture was based around immunity and autoimmunity. Dr. Judy Van De Water is currently doing research to try to define things like Maternal Autoantibody Related Autism (MAR) and Maternal Immune Activation. Regarding MAR she has been able to show that mothers can have autoantibodies directed at parts of the fetal brain even before conception and that these antibodies can have negative impacts on that child’s developing brain.
If you’re reading this as a patient of mine, you already know the importance of Gut Microbiome for overall health. What you might not know is the gut microbiome actually plays a specific role during preconception and pregnancy. According to Robertson et,al, Emerging evidence suggests that the colonization of microbes in the human body during early life plays a critical role in the establishment and maturation of developmental pathways and that disruption of this optimal microbial succession may contribute to lifelong and intergenerational deficits in growth and development. Anything that affects the mother’s microbiome (such as infections, gestational antibiotics, stress, malnutrition, vaccines) can potentially alter fetal development.
Finally, addressing toxicity during preconception is one of the most powerful things that we can try to achieve as clinicians. A study just released this summer showed that PFAS chemicals more easily cross the placenta than they do through breastfeeding. We are inundated with chemicals in our food (glyphosate), personal care products (endocrine disrupting chemicals), pollutants in our air (high PM2.5 levels), water (toxic metals, fluoride, microplastics) and even birth control which is considered a synthetic endocrine disrupter. These seem like doom and gloom conversations, but there is power in raising consciousness to find ways of avoiding and addressing exposure. Detoxing with infrared sauna and healthy organic food goes a long way in mitigating these exposures. For more information consider following the work of Dr. Stephanie Seneff, Zen Honeycut, Michelle Perro, MD who have a podcast called Mothers, Doctors and Scientists https://gmoscience.org/the-new-mds/
Despite the heaviness of some of these topics, I am still motivated to help people heal, make lifestyle changes, and positively affect the future generation. I wake up every day hoping for policy changes that might ban toxic forever chemicals in our food production. I hope for the election of politicians who can have coherent conversations about these topics and who aren’t beholden to corporate interests. I am a forever optimist. I am thankful for the foundation of support I’m given at Bio Energy Medical Center, where have a platform to help people navigate these complex health conditions.
