ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Ecology and Anthropology
Maternal overweight/obesity and yoghurt supplementation from early pregnancy to postpartum augments infant gut microbiota
Provisionally accepted
Longlong Jia1,2
Junying Zhao2Yanpin Liu2
Yan Liu2Qian Liu2
Bin Liu2
Xianping Li2
Guanghui Li3Ziyi Zhang2,4Minghui Zhang2Weicang Qiao2
Huimin Liu1*
Lijun Chen1,2*- 1Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, China
- 2National Engineering Research Center of Dairy Health for Maternal and Child, Beijing Sanyuan Foods Co., Ltd., Beijing, China
- 3Capital Medical University Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Beijing, China
- 4Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, China
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Background: Maternal overweight/obesity during pregnancy heightens the risk of overweight/obesity in their offspring, and probiotic interventions during pregnancy may prevent excessive weight gain and enhance the abundance of beneficial gut microbiota. This study examined the effect of probiotic-rich yoghurt supplementation in overweight or obese women on infant weight and gut microbiota. Methods: The intervention group (YC) comprised 90 infants born to mothers with a pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25 kg/m2 who were provided with yoghurt from early pregnancy to 3 years postpartum. The control groups comprised 70 infants born to mothers with normal weight (NC) and 66 infants born to mothers with a BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 (CC). Results: Infant weight was significantly higher in the YC group than in the NC group at 42 days and 3 months. The Shannon index of the YC group was higher than that of the NC group at 0–6 months. Enterotype compositions in the YC and CC groups differed from those of the NC group during 0–6 months. In the NC group, the relative abundance of Akkermansia and Serratia remained stable, that of Blautia was initially stable but then increased, whereas that of Lactobacillus decreased over time. In the CC and YC groups, the abundance of these genera increased and then decreased. Infant weight and the relative abundance of Veillonella, Fusicatenibacter, and Akkermansia showed a positive correlation. Conclusions: Maternal overweight/obesity affects subsequent infant weight and gut microbiota development, and maternal yoghurt intervention may alter the relative abundance of infant gut microbiota.
Keywords: Gut Microbiota, Infant weight, Overweight/obesity, Pre-pregnancy, Yoghurt
Received: 28 Oct 2025; Accepted: 16 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Jia, Zhao, Liu, Liu, Liu, Liu, Li, Li, Zhang, Zhang, Qiao, Liu and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Huimin Liu
Lijun Chen
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