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Background: A lack of safety data on postpartum medication use presents a potential barrier to breastfeeding and may result in infant exposure to medications in breastmilk. The type and extent of medication use by lactating women requires investigation. Methods: Data were collected from the CHILD Cohort Study which enrolled pregnant women across Canada between 2008 and 2012. Participants completed questionnaires regarding medications and non-prescription medications used and breastfeeding status at 3, 6 and 12 months postpartum. Medications, along with self-reported reasons for medication use, were categorized by ontologies [hierarchical controlled vocabulary] as part of a large-scale curation effort to enable more robust investigations of reasons for medication use. Results: A total of 3542 mother-infant dyads were recruited to the CHILD study. Breastfeeding rates were 87.4%, 75.3%, 45.5% at 3, 6 and 12 months respectively. About 40% of women who were breastfeeding at 3 months used at least one prescription medication during the first three months postpartum; this proportion decreased over time to 29.5% % at 6 months and 32.8% at 12 months. The most commonly used prescription medication by breastfeeding women was domperidone at 3 months (9.0%, n = 229/2540) and 6 months (5.6%, n = 109/1948), and norethisterone at 12 months (4.1%, n = 48/1180). The vast majority of domperidone use by breastfeeding women (97.3%) was for lactation purposes which is off-label (signifying unapproved use of an approved medication). Non-prescription medications were more often used among breastfeeding than non-breastfeeding women (67.6% versus 48.9% at 3 months, p < 0.0001), The most commonly used non-prescription medications were multivitamins and Vitamin D at 3, 6 and 12 months postpartum. Conclusions: In Canada, medication use is common postpartum; 40% of breastfeeding women use prescription medications in the first 3 months postpartum. A diverse range of medications were used, with many women taking more than one prescription and non-prescription medicines. The most commonly used prescription medication by breastfeeding women were domperidone for off-label lactation support, signalling a need for more data on the efficacy of domperidone for this indication. This data should inform research priorities and communication strategies developed to optimize care during lactation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The infant gut is rapidly colonized by microorganisms soon after birth, and the composition of the microbiota is dynamic in the first year of life. Although a stable microbiome may not be established until 1 to 3 years after birth, the infant gut microbiota appears to be an important predictor of health outcomes in later life. Methods: We obtained stool at one year of age from 173 white Caucasian and 182 South Asian infants from two Canadian birth cohorts to gain insight into how maternal and early infancy exposures influence the development of the gut microbiota. We investigated whether the infant gut microbiota differed by ethnicity (referring to groups of people who have certain racial, cultural, religious, or other traits in common) and by breastfeeding status, while accounting for variations in maternal and infant exposures (such as maternal antibiotic use, gestational diabetes, vegetarianism, infant milk diet, time of introduction of solid food, infant birth weight, and weight gain in the first year). Results: We demonstrate that ethnicity and infant feeding practices independently influence the infant gut microbiome at 1 year, and that ethnic differences can be mapped to alpha diversity as well as a higher abundance of lactic acid bacteria in South Asians and a higher abundance of genera within the order Clostridiales in white Caucasians. Conclusions: The infant gut microbiome is influenced by ethnicity and breastfeeding in the first year of life. Ethnic differences in the gut microbiome may reflect maternal/infant dietary differences and whether these differences are associated with future cardiometabolic outcomes can only be determined after prospective follow-up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]