Early Life Conditions Influence Milk Production
Maternal nutritional conditions during pregnancy are known to have substantially affect infant development. This was most clearly demonstrated by research into the outcomes of infants from the Dutch Hunger Winter of 1944 . Because determination and differentiation of cell lines occur during embryonic development, nutritional conditions and other environmental insults early during pregnancy can substantially alter offspring phenotype, including behavior and general health. For example, the Hunger Winter produced different results depending on whether the mother’s nutrition was most interrupted during the first, second, or third trimester, or during lactation. photo from Dutch Resist ance Museum Since then, systematic research into fetal programming and developmental origins of health and disease ( D o H A D ) has identified that early life nutritional conditions affect numerous physiological systems and organ structures, putting individuals at later risk for kidney, liver, heart,