The Eco Midwife

Research round up september 2018

I have always enjoyed being up to date and providing evidenced based information for parents to be. A large part of taking back control with hypnobirthing is having the knowledge base to underpin your decisions within pregnancy and birth. This year alone I have written several research round up’s for the journal of health visiting on various studies and have had my third original publication in MIDIRS (A midwifery journal).

This latest research round up shows benefits from taking probiotics from 36 weeks of pregnancy until 3/4 months postnatal and omega 3 supplements from 20 weeks gestation:

“The findings from the 381 analysed and reviewed studies indicated that maternal use of probiotics from 36 weeks gestation and during the first 3–6 months of lactation may reduce the risk of atopic eczema in children until 4 years of age by 20–30%. There were also links found between maternal probiotic use and reduced cow’s milk allergic sensitisation at 1–2 years old in their children. Fish oils such as omega 3 are known to have anti-inflammatory effects (Dunstan et al, 2003). The use of omega 3 fish oil supplementation from 20 weeks gestation in pregnancy and the first 3–4 months of lactation was found to decrease the likelihood of egg allergies in children at 1 year old.”