Pregnancy and Lactation: A Window of Opportunity to Improve Individual Health

: Human and animal studies indicate that obesity during pregnancy adversely impacts both maternal health and offspring phenotype predisposing them to chronic diseases later in life including obesity, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and hypertension. Effective interventions during human pregnancy and/or lactation are needed to improve both maternal and offspring health. This review addresses the relationship between adverse perinatal insults and its negative impact on offspring development and presents some maternal intervention studies such as diet modification, probiotic consumption, or maternal exercise, to prevent or alleviate the negative outcomes in both the mother and her child.