In this episode of Milestones in Maternal Nutrition, Dr. Carla Cerami speaks with Professor Andrew Prentice about how a mother's diet and nutritional status around the time of conception can leave a lasting imprint on her baby's biology — shaping health outcomes that persist across an entire lifetime. Professor Prentice explains how key nutrients, particularly B vitamins and folate, fuel the epigenetic processes that regulate how a baby's genes are expressed during the earliest and most critical days of embryonic development. The discussion draws on how his team’s research in rural Gambia revealed that seasonal differences in maternal diet can measurably alter epigenetic marks in the baby's DNA —with potential links to obesity, thyroid function, and neonatal diabetes. Together, they reflect on what these discoveries mean for the future of pre-conceptional nutrition guidance, and why optimizing a mother's diet before pregnancy may be just as critical as care during it.
