A graduate of the London Film School, Toni Harman has produced and directed a number of internationally distributed documentary films including MICROBIRTH, about the origins of the human microbiome, FREEDOM FOR BIRTH, about the struggle for women's rights in childbirth and DOULA!, about the work of birth and postnatal doulas.
Toni’s extensive research for MICROBIRTH led to her co-authoring the books THE MICROBIRTH EFFECT and YOUR BABY’s MICROBIOME.
Toni is also a professional speaker at international conferences about the science of the microbiome and epigenetics.
As Educational Leader of the MICROBIOME COURSES online school, with over 37,000 enrolled students, Toni combines knowledge gained from researching the subject for ten years with her extensive experience of running educational one-day and multiple-day workshops for adult learners.
MICROBIRTH filmmaker and author Toni Harman explains the microscopic events happening during physiological birth and breastfeeding. When a baby is born, the infant acquires bacteria from the mother’s birth canal, from contact with the mother’s fecal matter, from skin-to-skin contact, from other environmental exposures and from breast milk. The special sugars in human breast milk then feed the bacteria that have come from the mother to quickly colonise the baby’s gut, thus ensuring the optimal training of the infant immune system. However, C-section, antibiotics and formula feeding can impact these natural biological processes with ramifications for a child’s lifelong health.
Eight years ago, Toni Harman made a documentary called MICROBIRTH. In the film, Hannah Dahlen, a professor of midwifery says, “Turn the microscope on birth. It’s a really important part of a human being’s life”. If we do turn the microscope on birth, we discover the science of the microbiome. This is the science that strongly supports the midwifery profession.
In this presentation, Toni explains some of the critical microscopic events happening during pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding, and how these events are supported by the work of midwives. Toni makes a case that midwives support the vertical transmission of beneficial microbes from mother to child. This helps protect a child’s long-term health. Toni argues that if we can better support midwives, we can better support parents, and in turn, we can better support and protect the health of the next generation.
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