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Effects of Mediterranean diet or Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction during pregnancy on maternal gut and vaginal microbiota: a subanalysis of the Improving Mothers for a better PrenAtal Care Trial BarCeloNa (IMPACT BCN) trial

M. Selma-Royo, F. Crispi, S. Castro-Barquero, Irene Casas, M. Larroya, M. Genero, C. Paules, L. Benítez et al.

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2025

351 participants · 9 citations

Abstract

Background Despite the importance of gestation period for human health, studies addressing the impact of maternal microbiota on its progression and its modulation by maternal lifestyle are scarce. Although most of the evidence in the field comes from observational studies, we recently described how some lifestyle interventions during pregnancy reduced the small-for-gestational-age (SGA) incidence. We hypothesized the pregnant individual’s microbiome modulation as potential mechanism by which lifestyle interventions could impact gestation progression. Objectives The objectives of this study was to investigate the effect of pregnancy lifestyle interventions, based on a Mediterranean dietary pattern (MD) or Stress Reduction program (SR) that proved to be beneficial in reducing the SGA incidence, on the pregnant individuals’ gut and vaginal microbiota as exploratory outcomes. Methods In a random subsample (n = 351) from a trial including pregnancies randomly allocated into an MD intervention, an SR program, or non-intervention, maternal fecal/vaginal samples were collected at the end of the interventions, and in a subset (n = 85) also at recruitment. Microbiota was profiled by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Multivariate models evaluated the associations of microbiota with the interventions. Results Mothers included in the study presented a similar gut microbiota profile before the intervention; pregnancy MD intervention influenced the overall structure of gut microbiota, (R2 = 0.008,…

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