The temporal development of the human milk microbiome

Bacterial communities in human milk contribute to gut microbiome establishment in breastfed infants. Although mothers are encouraged to continue breastfeeding after infants commence solid food, temporal variation across the lactation period, especially beyond the first few months, remains unclear. To fill the current gaps in our knowledge, this study analysed 539 longitudinal human milk samples collected from 83 mother infant dyads between 1 week and 12 months postpartum using full length 16S rRNA gene sequencing.