Hello friends, I'm very excited to share today's episode with you. As a mother, it covers a topic that is very near and dear to my heart.

A topic that has to do with infant and child development. That topic is the biology of breast milk and the enormous health benefits breastfeeding has for both the infant and mother.

We are going to dive deep into the science of breast milk on this one, including breast milk composition and production.

How human milk oligosaccharides in breast milk establish the infant gut microbiome and protect from bacterial infection.

How omega-3 fatty acids that find their way into breast milk as a result of the mother's diet and supplementation may boost brain development.

Which vitamins and minerals are robustly passed to the infant through breast milk and others that are poorly transferred.

How breast milk contains stem cells that can help with infant development and may even integrate into intact organ systems in the infant's body.

How harmful substances can be transferred to the infant via breast milk.

How breastfeeding improves the infant's passive and active immune system and even forms a compensatory immune system where infant infection generates a rapid response that beneficially alters the mother's breast milk, arming the infant to fight infection.

How breast milk improves infant brain development with special relevance to infants born prematurely.

How breastfeeding benefits mothers by reducing the risk of ovarian and breast cancer and so much more.

But before we get started, I want to quickly mention a couple of things.

First, co-released with this episode today is a sample of a brand new episode format we are calling an aliquot.

What is an aliquot you may ask?

Alliquots are special curated segments prepared and distributed to premium members via the premium members' podcast feed.

Alliquots in a sense are all about curation.

We're excited about alliquots as just one more great benefit that we can bring to members while ultimately creating a useful format that is to the benefit of the public and supports the free content we produce like today's episode.

With that said, our co-released preview of the very first aliquot is in many ways an extension of today's episode.

It is focused on the many and I mean many questions I've taken on the topic of pregnancy and child development from members during the members only question and answer sessions.

Just for a few examples, it covers my pre-pregnancy regimen including diet, exercise, vitamins, and sleep, nutrition for babies and toddlers to maximize brain development and growth, extra precautions that I took during my pregnancy and much, much more.

So if you enjoy this episode today and you're interested in my continued thoughts on pregnancy and child development topics, take a listen to a preview of our very first aliquot episode now.

You can also find more aliquot episode previews and information about this new type of curated members content at foundmyfitness.com forward slash aliquot.

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