Transgenerational exposure. Lead in a pregnant mother’s body that accumulates from her everyday life up to her pregnancy, affects gene expression in the growing fetus inside her womb.
Lead is an endocrine disruptor. Especially for the baby’s brain and insulin receptors. Lead affects future diabetes and cognition risks. No level of lead is good. Lead has been proven to reduce IQ.
When a mother breasts feeds, up to 80% of her body burden of endocrine disruptors, including lead, go into breast milk and into the baby.
What to do ideally? Detox prior to conception. But if you are already pregnant, you can take 1000 mg of vitamin C twice a day and that gently helps you detox without hurting yourself or the fetus. But you can do other healthful things if you work with a medical nutritionist.
Arko Sen, Nicole Heredia, Marie-Claude Senut, Susan Land, Kurt Hollocher, Xiangyi Lu, Mary O. Dereski, Douglas M. Ruden. Multigenerational epigenetic inheritance in humans: DNA methylation changes associated with maternal exposure to lead can be transmitted to the grandchildren. Scientific Reports, 2015; 5: 14466 DOI: 10.1038/srep14466