Fruit of the womb

In the words of William Blake, in the early 19th century: “Man brings all that he has or can have into the world with him. Man is born like a garden, ready planted and sown”.

Nearly 200 years later, Prof David Barker from the University of South Hampton invoked those lines to describe his theory of foetal programming.

Foetal programming is the idea that our health in middle- and old-age is predetermined by the conditions we experience in the womb. While we’re familiar with the hazards of smoking during pregnancy, people don’t appreciate the critical influence of a pregnant woman’s diet on the long-term health of her offspring.