The Lactation Lab: The Mother and Infant Metabolome and Microbiome (MIMM) Study
Improving the health of two generations by optimizing breastfeeding.
The Lactation Lab was founded in 2020 by two neonatologists, Dr. Rimi Sen and Dr. Cami Martin, who recognized the much needed scientific rigor needed in research studies investigating lactation. The Lactation Lab is comprised of both a clinical space and a laboratory space. The clinical space houses key tools needed for maternal and infant evaluation and the laboratory space aims to develop “best practices” for breastmilk storage and measurement techniques. The Lactation Lab is also home to the prospective Maternal & Infant Metabolome & Microbiome (MIMM) Study investigating the link between the maternal, breastmilk, and infant microbiomes.
- Funding and Support: Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, Metabolon , Brigham & Women’s Hospital, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
The Late Antenatal Maternal Metabolism & Babies’ Sugars Study (LAMMBS)
Low blood sugar is a common and easily treatable condition of the newborn that can be associated with long-term cognitive and learning challenges if left untreated. Infants born to mothers who enter pregnancy at higher weights may have underrecognized low blood sugar because maternal obesity is not an established risk factor for low blood sugar. Thus, infants born to overweight moms are not screened for low blood sugar and may be at risk for the later life effects. This study will help to determine if maternal obesity, in the absence of other risk factors such as gestational diabetes, is a risk factor for neonatal hypoglycemia (NH).
- Funding and Support: Brigham & Women’s Hospital, the Risk Management Foundation of the Harvard Medical Institutions Incorporated
Lifestyle Intervention in Preparing for Pregnancy (LIPP)
In collaboration with Dr. Patrick Catalano at Tufts Medical Center, the LIPP Study is a randomized, controlled trial of a lifestyle intervention (moderate calorie restriction with shift to a Mediterranean diet and regular exercise) in post-partum women with overweight or obesity who are planning a subsequent pregnancy in the next 12-24 months. The aims of the study are to determine how the lifestyle intervention improves maternal metabolic markers, neonatal adiposity, and placental biomarkers from the subsequent pregnancy.
- Funding and Support: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Mama Sana (“healthy mother” in Spanish) is a multi-disciplinary program and collaboration between the Nutrition, Pediatric Newborn Medicine, and Obstetrics departments. Mama Sana’s goal is to provide language and culturally concordant maternity care for Spanish-speaking families delivering at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Mama Sana is a “wrap around” (i.e. providing continuity of care through pre- and post-natal) care program that provides nutritio