WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND –
Nov. 5, 2025 – A growing body of evidence suggests that the health consequences of early life stress can be transmitted across generations. Adverse childhood experiences, such as abuse, neglect, or household dysfunction, can have lasting effects on an individual’s mental and physical health. Research also indicates that children of parents who were exposed to such adversity are at a higher risk for developing their own behavioral and metabolic issues.
Scientists are working to identify the biological pathways through which these effects might be passed down. Breast milk, a complex fluid rich in bioactive compounds that influence infant development, presents a plausible route for this transmission.
“Our main motivation was to examine the relevance of breast milk to the emerging concept of ‘transgenerational trauma’. Our previous work identified a role for sperm epigenetics in potential biological transmission of psychiatric disease susceptibility through the patriline (fathers),” said study author Ali Jawaid, principal investigator at the Translational Neuropsychiatry Research Group (TREND Lab) at the Polish Center for Technology Development.
“Breast milk introduces an additional pathway that is relevant for matrilineal (mothers) influences. We wanted to test whether epigenetic signatures of adverse childhood experiences in mothers could be detected in their breast milk, and whether they are associated with early behavioral measures in their infants. This is, indeed, what the study showed.”
