{"id":157300,"date":"2023-05-10T04:18:11","date_gmt":"2023-05-10T04:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tecscience.tec.mx\/en\/?p=157300"},"modified":"2024-12-09T17:53:37","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T23:53:37","slug":"benefits-of-breast-milk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tecscience.tec.mx\/en\/biotechnology\/benefits-of-breast-milk\/","title":{"rendered":"Breast milk: protection that lasts a lifetime"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Six years ago, Marion Brunck’s<\/a> world changed when she breastfed her baby for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a scientist and a mom, the experience had a profound impact on her, leading her to want to know more about the importance of breast milk and how it can protect babies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, she leads a line of research that examines the relationship between this food and active immunity (which occurs after an infection or a vaccine) in babies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It was the beginning of studies on this topic and I wasn’t satisfied with what I found,” she says in an interview with TecScience<\/em><\/strong>. \u201cI realized that there might be a gap, so I began a professional \u2013and personal\u2013 quest to find more answers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt’s very difficult to be a mother nowadays: you’re under a lot of pressure, you need to be productive, and you also need to be the perfect mother. But no one’s perfect,\u201d she says. (Photo: Udell Jim\u00e9nez \/ TecScience)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benefits of breast milk<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Marion Brunck is a research professor at Tecnol\u00f3gico de Monterrey who conducts her investigations at the Femsa Biotechnology Center<\/a>. In recent years, her work has also focused on changes in the breast milk of mothers with obesity<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within the scientific community, the relationship between breast milk and passive immunity<\/a> \u2013which occurs when someone receives antibodies instead of producing them in their immune system\u2013 has been well-defined for some time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know that breast milk allows the mother to pass on the antibodies her body has acquired from fighting off past infections or receiving a vaccine. Also, there is evidence that those children who were breastfed are more resistant to disease than those who weren’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, in premature babies when the mother was unable to breastfeed, there is an increased incidence of gastrointestinal infections and necrotizing enterocolitis, a disease in newborns in which intestinal tissue dies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, little is known about the relationship between breast milk and active immunity in babies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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