Background: Breast milk is known as the most crucial postpartum issue in metabolic and immunologic programming of neonatal health. Human milk microbial changes over Lactation. The factors influencing the milk microbiome as well as potential impact of microbes on infant health have not yet been discovered. The objective was to identify pre- and post-natal factors that can potentially influence the bacterial communities inhabiting human milk.
Materials and methods: Breast milk samples (n = 40) with all full-term breastfed infants were collected from lactating randomized. Information on personal characteristics, dietary habits, information about infants were collected after birth. The samples were plated with serial dilutions on three selective culture media man rogosa sharp and then colonies were counted. Colonies tested for catalase reaction, Gram-staining and microscopic examination.
Results: The result of this study showed that the overall incidence of positive Lactobacillus in mother's milk was 87.5%. The results based on (infant gender, mode of delivery, rural or urban and lactation time) rural or urban and lactation time were significant (P < 0.05). The results showed that all of the variables were significant in this regression model (P < 0.001). The median of log10 Lactobacillus counts in rural mothers, vaginal delivery, infant male gender and Lactation time for first 3-month were meaningfully high.
Conclusions: The findings of this study about the breast milk Lactobacillus potential probiotic bacteria of healthy Iranian mothers, suggested that the breast milk microbiome is significantly influenced by several factors, mode of delivery, rural or urban and lactation time.
Keywords: Breast milk; Lactobacillus; delivery; infant; lactation.