Mother's milk protects newborns from infection
Mother's milk is considered nectar for the health of newborn children. For the first few days, newborn babies are advised to consume only breast milk. Along with nourishing them, it also helps to avoid many diseases.
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Recent research has revealed that due to some protective sugars found in breast milk, it helps newborn babies to fight against various types of bacterial infections. Group B strep bacteria found in pregnant women are the cause of many infections in newborns. Because of this, the risk of diseases like pneumonia increases. In most cases, even the death of newborn children has been observed.
The results of the study were displayed at the 254th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington.
According to research, sugar acts as an anti-biofilm agent. This is the first example of such behavior for a carbohydrate found in human milk. About ten years ago, researchers discovered in research that the germs of Group B strep bacteria born in pregnant women enter the body of the newborn through breastfeeding. But when children affected by this bacterial infection were tested, most of them did not get the infection. From this, it becomes clear that there is some element present in the mother's milk that fights against this bacteria.
A dozen samples of breast milk were studied and tried to find out whether the sugar found in it was able to fight bacteria or not. After research, two of those samples were such that were active against both bacteria and biofilms. In addition, there were two that showed activity only against bacteria, and four helped fight biofilms, while 6 samples remained relatively inactive.
In the conclusions drawn from the research, it was told that the sugar found in breast milk first sensitizes these bacteria and then kills them. Therefore, mother's milk acts as an anti-bacterial treatment for babies. Apart from this, it can help as an antibiotic for adults as well.
