NMP Researcher Looking For Expectant Moms
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PRINCE GEORGE – Does how a child is brought into the world affect their health growing up? That’s the question a UNBC researcher is hoping to discover as part of a new provincial team. Dr. Sheona Mitchell-Foster says the research aims to learn if there is a difference between a C-Section and a vaginal birth in determining a child’s health.
Dr. Mitchell-Foster is leading the collection of data and analysis in Prince George to find out if there are different impacts on a baby’s gut bacterial community, or its microbiome, depending on cesarean or vaginal delivery.
“Our gut microbiome is something we now believe can have a lifelong impact on a variety of chronic diseases from obesity to diabetes,” she says. “What we don’t really know yet is what role the mother’s vaginal microbiome has on how an infant’s microbiome develops.
The University Hospital of Northern BC in Prince George is one of three sites in B.C. participating in the study, which also includes BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre and Surrey Memorial Hospital.
