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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. Rachael

    May 7, 2013 at 6:02 pm

    Is it only The Pill or does having other forms of birth control have the same affect?

    Reply
  2. Debbie W

    Apr 29, 2013 at 10:29 pm

    Does this also include progesterone only birth control? Or only the birth control that contains both progesterone and estrogen? Thanks for any info you can shed.

    Reply
  3. Beth Turner

    Apr 28, 2013 at 2:04 pm

    What is the mechanism by why hormonal contraceptives interfere with the gut? Is it only from oral methods of delivery, or do methods like the patch/NuvaRing/IUDs with hormones in them also interfere with gut bacteria? How do the hormones, either ingested orally or delivered by some other way, affect the bacteria? Does progestin attack certain types of bacteria directly? Or does the bad bacteria feed off the artificial hormones in some way?

    And since hormonal contraceptives basically just mimic the hormonal state of a woman’s body during pregnancy, is it true that a pregnant woman would suffer similar harm to her gut?

    Do you have any citations/sources on this issue? I’m very interested! Thanks!

    Reply
  4. Janis

    Apr 23, 2013 at 11:51 pm

    1. By reproducing in the first place you will harm your future child’s health as you will create a being whose body is vulnerable to harms and will steadily degenerate until death. If you want to actually prevent your future child from being harmed, refrain from reproduce.

    Otherwise, any actions you undertake before and after pregnancy will be meaningless as you are not a god who can prevent bad things from happening to your child. No, you will NOT guarantee a less painful/horrifying life and dying process for your child just because of your health knowledge. That is a fact. If you want to parent, helping children who are already here is a noble and unselfish act. If you already have biological children, you can continue loving them while refraining from further reproduction.

    2. Because of the high risks of pregnancy, STDs, vaginal infections, and cervical cancer, I highly recommend against penile-vaginal sex at all. Yes, most men are taught that this is the only “right sex,” but it isn’t. If your spouse takes issue with you refraining from penile-vaginal sex, HE DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR HEALTH. I repeat, HE DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR HEALTH. He should value your health over his “need” to have penile-vaginal sex. If you can, please leave that relationship. You are better off alone or in a relationship that doesn’t require penile-vaginal sex. For more information, research radical feminism.

    Also, please keep in mind that in some cultures, penile-vaginal sex is only done when they want to conceive, not on a constant basis where birth control is needed. If penile-vaginal sex makes you uncomfortable sometimes, it could have something to do with you doing it too much or that you shouldn’t do it at all.

    Reply
  5. DeAnn Carter

    Mar 27, 2013 at 1:01 am

    I clicked on your sources but didn’t read anything referring to the pill. Could you please be a little more clear on your sources?

    Reply
  6. Meagan

    Mar 26, 2013 at 12:06 pm

    What would you recommend in the absence of “The Pill.” I have been nursing for almost 9 months and my cycle has not returned as of yet. With my first baby it did not return until after I finished nursing completely. I don’t want to use “The Pill” but I don’t feel capable or ready to have another baby. Any recommendations for me?

    Reply
  7. cammy

    Mar 13, 2013 at 3:34 pm

    what would you recommend for natural prevention while breastfeeding? I like the idea of cyclebeads but I don’t get periods :/ and is the Billng method very complicated?

    Reply
  8. Maureen Knight

    Mar 3, 2013 at 8:40 pm

    What about menopausal women taking estrogen and progestin for 10 years???

    Reply
  9. Pam

    Feb 21, 2013 at 5:59 am

    I am having a really hard time understanding why the pill is so bad… I took the pill for 14 years with absolutely no side effects or health problems, We have 3 kids, 2 were conceived easily within 1-2 months after coming off the pill, one was an “oops” while on the pill (I had surgery and we think that caused me to ovulate waaayyyyy early on day 2-3 instead of 14-21). No miscarriages, 3 healthy pregnancies, none of my kids have eczema, allergies, gut issues, autism, ADHD or behavior problems (neither do I or my husband) and are rarely sick

    I stopped taking the pill after my hubby’s vasectomy was deemed a success and the sperm count was zero. Nice to save the $30 every month and not have to remember to take a pill everyday! But the pill and I were good friends and got along just fine 🙂

    Reply
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