List and describe potential factors that the mother or the infant could be exposed to that could influence the colonization of the microbial community in the newborn infant
- Antibiotic use: Long-term use of antibiotic could decrease the diversity of microbe community inside human body. During the pregnancy, it might decrease the amount of microbes that got transfer into new born child, which will also decrease the diversity inside new born.
- Diet: Placenta is a organ that transport nutrients into baby from mother’s blood. And according to what kind of diet mother was eating it could directly effect the nutrients inside her blood and transfer into her baby. For example, if the mother had been eating high fat diet, it might effecting her own lipid metabolism which also have the potential to transfer that problem into her baby by placenta.
- Environmental: There’re different microbes flowing in the air, which could easily infected human by breathing them into our body. Mother who live in an environment that have high concentration of bad microbes is more likely to get infected and transfer it to their child.
