Pregnant Mommies better have Clean Teeth

by E.doc

This is a pretty scary one. A new study suggests that oral bacteria present in a pregnant mother's mouth may pass through her blood stream to the fetus, being the main cause of death for some stillborn babies. This hits home for me because my older sister has had two failed pregnancies.

It is widely known that when a woman is pregnant, her body goes through some very intense changes. What is not widely known, however, is that the hormone fluctuations in her body can cause bleeding of the gums in her mouth. This means that there is now an open passageway (a bleeding cut) to the bloodstream. This open passageway can allow bacteria, which the mouth is full of, into the bloodstream. The bacteria can then enter the fetus via the mother's blood. Babies are not born with very good immune systems. This is why they are always sick with a runny nose, always get fevers, etc. They build up their immune system as they grow. This is also why immunizations can be so important to the health of most babies. If a fetus is attacked by bacteria before it has even had a chance to build up an immune system, there is not much hope for the fetus fighting it off on it's own.

Usually the mother's immune system would fight off such an infection, but what if mom gets sick? In the study mentioned above, the mother was fighting off an upper respiratory infection. Her immune system simply got overloaded and could not fight off the infection that was responsible for killing the fetus.

Anyone who has heart troubles knows that a clean mouth is important. As a kid I personally had a heart murmur, and every time I had to visit the dentist/orthodontist, I was required to take antibiotics beforehand to help fight off any bacteria that would enter my bloodstream through my gums.

At any given time, your mouth has more than twenty different kinds of bacteria happily loving in it. And that is just in your mouth, not including your throat (where your lymph nodes or "tonsils" are), your lungs, or the skin around your mouth.

Moral of the story? If you are trying to get pregnant or know someone who is, make sure to tell them to visit the dentist before they get pregnant, and also to keep good oral hygiene.

The life of their baby may depend on it.


thanks to textbookofbacteriology.net and riversidephotography.co.uk for the pics