What Doctors don’t tell you about antibiotics, pregnancy and lung development.

Antibiotics during pregnancy can do more damage than was once thought.

By destroying the bacteria in the mother’s gut we are destroying the baby’s immune system.

Bacteria in the mother’s gut release chemicals which direct the developing baby’s growth. In this case, it is a group of chemicals that tell the lungs when to build immune cells and when to use them. 

Disrupting their function by killing them off with antibiotics makes the newborn more susceptible to contracting pneumonia. The mortality rate, the number of deaths, is also higher.

I am not sure of the practice in South Africa, but in the US and UK women are given antibiotics just before a Caesarean Section. They are administered to prevent infection by Streptococcus infections.

We have co-evolved with the bacteria in our gut for hundreds of thousands of years. They are essential in our development and health from even before we are born.

They likely have a role to play from before the moment of conception until we die. It is insane to continue to take antibiotics for cold and flu. We should only take them as a last resort.

We are developing new generations of people who have a terrible immune system due, in part, to excessive antibiotic use in humans and on farms.

My advice is don’t blindly listen to your doctor, be wary of antibiotics and Caesarean Sections.

To overcome some of the problems take a good probiotic daily. 

This post is based on an article in the magazine “New Scientist” 18 Feb 2017, “Antibiotics may harm infant’s lungs”