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Healthy Home Economist / Archives / Healthy Pregnancy, Baby & Child / How The Pill Harms Your Future Child’s Health

How The Pill Harms Your Future Child’s Health

by Sarah Pope / Updated: Mar 2, 2025 / Affiliate Links ✔

Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • The Pill Causes Nutritional Deficiencies
  • Pathogenic Gut Flora from Birth Control Pills
  • Gut Dysbiosis and Anemia Go Hand in Hand
  • Baby “Inherits” Mom’s Microbiome (for better or for worse)
  • Think Twice Before Taking Birth Control Pills

Reasons to avoid birth control pills or any type of oral contraceptive as they cause nutritional deficiencies and destroy the microbiome for those that take it and their future children.

woman holding blister pack of oral contraceptive pills

Since the introduction of oral contraceptives in the early 1960s, use of “the Pill”, as it is generally known, has soared to approximately 7 in 10 women of childbearing age.  

Among young women ages 18-24, oral contraceptive use is especially high, reaching two-thirds in 2008.

The widespread use of The Pill is a troubling issue because oral contraceptives devastate beneficial bacterial flora in the gut.

This leaves those who use it vulnerable to colonization and dominance from pathogenic strains such as Candida albicans, Streptococci, and Staphylococci among others.

By the time a woman who has used birth control pills is ready to have children, a severe case of intractable gut dysbiosis has more than likely taken hold.

Most people think that only the use of drugs such as antibiotics causes gut imbalances, but this is simply not true.

According, to Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD, many other drugs such as the Pill also cause severe gut dysbiosis.

What’s worse, a drug-induced gut imbalance is especially resistant to treatment either with probiotics or diet change.

What does this mean for your future child’s health?  

A lot, as it turns out!

The Pill Causes Nutritional Deficiencies

First of all, gut imbalance brought on through the use of The Pill negatively impacts the ability to digest food and absorb nutrients.

As a result, even if a woman eats spectacularly well during pregnancy, she can experience nutritional deficiencies.

If she has been taking oral contraceptives for a long period of time, it is highly likely that she and her baby are not reaping the full benefits of the healthy food she is eating.

The lack of beneficial flora in her gut prevents this from occurring.

In addition, beneficial bacteria actively synthesize nutrients, especially B vitamins, Vitamin K1, amino acids, and other nutrients.

In an imbalanced gut, a woman is missing out on the “natural supplementation” that these good strains provide to her and her growing baby.

Not well known is the fact that using the Pill depletes zinc in the body.

Zinc is called “the intelligence mineral” as it is intimately involved in mental development.

As a result, it is very important for women who have been using the Pill for any length of time to wait at least 6 months before becoming pregnant to ensure that zinc levels return to normal.

Low zinc is associated with lowered IQ and birth defects.

If you are concerned that your levels might be low, try this easy at-home zinc deficiency test to give you peace of mind.

It really is quite disturbing to fully realize the very real potential that the use of The Pill has to trigger nutritional deficiencies!

Pathogenic Gut Flora from Birth Control Pills

Pathogenic, opportunistic microbes that take hold in the gut when The Pill is used constantly produce toxic substances.

They are the poisonous by-products of their metabolism.

These toxins leak into the woman’s bloodstream and guess what, they have the potential to cross the placenta!

Therefore, gut dysbiosis exposes the fetus to toxins even if the woman never eats anything but organic foods and lives in an environment with no pollutants.

Indeed, an imbalanced gut has the potential to expose a woman and her baby to just as many or even more toxins than her environment through self-poisoning!

Gut Dysbiosis and Anemia Go Hand in Hand

Most people with abnormal gut flora also suffer from various stages of anemia.  

This is because some of the most common pathogenic strains of bacteria that take hold in an imbalanced gut are those that consume iron: 

  • Actinomyces spp.
  • Mycobacterium spp.
  • Pathogenic strains of E.Coli
  • Corynebacterium spp. and others.

Anemia during pregnancy is especially dangerous. 

Not only can it deprive the fetus of oxygen (iron helps build red blood cells and red blood cells carry oxygen), but it is linked to low birth weight and pre-term birth.

Can iron supplements during pregnancy combat this problem?

In a word, no!

How many women do you know who consistently battle low iron during pregnancy despite consuming iron supplements and eating iron-rich foods?

I personally know many such cases.

The reason is that the more iron a patient with gut dysbiosis consumes in either food or supplement form, the stronger these pathogenic, iron-loving strains become!  

The extra iron “feeds” them, so to speak, much the same as sugar feeds Candida albicans. 

The cure for gut dysbiotic anemia is to heal and seal the gut, not take iron supplements with low bioavailability!

Baby “Inherits” Mom’s Microbiome (for better or for worse)

A human baby is born with a sterile gut.

This means that there is no bacterial activity in a fetus’ digestive system prior to birth.  

The vast majority of gut flora that a child eventually develops is inherited from Mom.

This occurs via the baby swallowing microbes during vaginal birth. These microbes can be either good or bad!

If Mom has a gut imbalance, it will be the same situation in her vagina. Hence, her children’s intestines will be seeded with the same microbes during delivery.

Babies born via Cesarean section are at risk for even more unbalanced gut flora as their guts are seeded with whatever microbes are floating around the hospital at the time (which is why it is so imperative for a baby born via C-section to be breastfed IMMEDIATELY!).

Children with imbalanced gut flora are particularly predisposed to autoimmune disorders in the form of allergies, asthma, and eczema. 

In more severe cases of gut dysbiosis, learning disabilities manifest such as ADHD, ADD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and others.  

Of course, there is sometimes an environmental “trigger” which instigates these disorders.

But, it is crucial to keep in mind that gut dysbiosis is the primary underlying cause.

Think Twice Before Taking Birth Control Pills

When considering whether or not to take oral contraceptives, women rarely if ever consider the long-term implications to themselves let alone their children. 

This is no surprise given that doctors rarely if ever mention this sort of thing when prescribing antibiotics let alone The Pill to their patients!

Therefore, it is vital that women be fully informed of the potentially devastating consequences to their health and that of their children (and potentially grandchildren) from birth control pills.

And Moms…do NOT let a pediatrician put your young daughter on oral contraceptives to control monthly menstrual discomfort! Fix her diet instead for a real solution to the problem instead of the band-aid approach favored by prescribing physicians.

References

March of Dimes, pregnancy complications
Mineral Primer
Gut and Psychology Syndrome, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD

More Information

170 Scientific Studies Confirm the Dangers of Soy
Why Even Organic Soy Formula is so Dangerous for Babies
The Dangers of Estrogenic Foods, Herbs, and Drugs

woman taking the pill with a destroyed microbiome

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Category: Healthy Pregnancy, Baby & Child
Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: Amazon #1 bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her four eBooks Good Diet…Bad Diet, Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.

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Reader Interactions

Comments (287)

  1. Sijfer

    Aug 25, 2012 at 11:56 am

    And if it is true that Sen. Sotto did that, even if it was just handed to him (the whole idea), as a voted government official, he must set as a good example and must humble himself, even if (let’s say) that it was just a coincidence or an accident. That is a true Filipino Gentleman.

    Reply
  2. Sijfer

    Aug 25, 2012 at 11:53 am

    Sorry, I found them already. The lines might have been both the same, but I think that information is still incomplete. I studied quite a bit of chemistry, and it all depends on the components of the pill, the quantity of the components in the pill, and the dosage of the pill (According to our lecture in Toxicology). Also, to quote Paracelsus (1493—1541), “All things are poison and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing not a poison.” Therefore without knowing the components of the pill and the medical background of the patient that will ingest it, the toxicity (poisonous effect) through a wrong pill would be averted, thus using contraceptives must be in accordance to an experienced physician’s prescription.

    Reply
  3. Sijfer

    Aug 23, 2012 at 9:47 pm

    Which line was the one copied again? I can’t find it anywhere, I’m having trouble comparing it because of the differences in language… Please help. Thank you. And sorry for the trouble…

    Reply
  4. Lapiskamay

    Aug 21, 2012 at 4:24 am

    Hi Miss Sarah, I can only imagine the discomfort and harm our Senator Sotto and his Anti-RH Bill speech has caused you. I’m also a blogger and I do condemn the apparent-plagiarism of the words from this very post. Stealing is still stealing whatever the sides the people are on the RH Bill debate. I believe the Senator (and his staff) owe you an honest apology, I’m saying this not because I’m a Pro RH Bill but as a good public servant and fellow writer/blogger.

    It’s always a good virtue to give credit where credit is due. Regards and wishing you all the best in life

    Reply
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