With the recent birth of the founders’ daughter, LoveBug Probiotics is sharing the love by supporting a number of charities, as well as partnering with birth centers, midwives, OB offices and hospitals to offer education about the importance of gut health.
It’s been said that nothing can stop a mom on a mission, and LoveBug’s CEO and co-founder Ashley Harris is a mom on a mission - both for her children and for yours.
4 years ago during the birth of her son Hudson, Ashley was put on broad-spectrum antibiotics as a preventive measure for group B strep. Over the next few months both Ashley and Hudson started getting sick. Ashley began suffering constant migraines and noticed a weakened immune system.
Her son was very colicky, had digestive issues and then right around the same time both Ashley and Hudson developed eczema. Frustrated, Ashley began a quest to discover what was happening to her and her son, and why. The culprit: bad gut bacteria. Doctors tested Ashley and found her symptoms were tied to a severe imbalance in her gut bacteria and that she had an array of digestive issues including candida, dysbiosis, and leaky gut.
Her microbiome had very little of the good bacteria vital to good health – and plenty of the bad bugs.
After discovering both she and Hudson had an imbalance in their gut bacteria, Ashley prodded her husband, co-founder Ben Harris, to get his own labs done. He found an imbalance of good and bad bacteria in his digestive system as well. Research led them to the wonders of probiotics and, after taking them, they noticed a dramatic turnaround in their overall health.
With her new found knowledge, she was committed to sharing her newly acquired good gut health with the world and jumped into serious research. Partnering with leading scientists, Ashley and Ben set out to create supplements with only the best probiotic strains, delivering the most bugs to where they’re needed to do their work and LoveBug Probiotics was born.
“I’m passionate about educating families about the importance of gut health, and excited to watch LoveBug be a resource to families,” Ashley said. “Good gut health is key to so many areas in our life, and nothing showed me that more than the pregnancies and births of my children.”
When the Harris family welcomed their daughter to the world, Ashley described the vast difference in the birth and demeanor of baby girl Harris.
“She’s so peaceful. It’s incredible and such a different experience compared to when Hudson was born,” she noted. “There has been no fussiness or colic and hardly any crying. I truly attribute this to the probiotics I was taking during my pregnancy, and I want all moms to be able to experience happy and healthy babies.”
All pregnant women are tested for group B streptococcus, a strain of bacteria that is found in the vagina or rectum of about a quarter of all otherwise healthy women. This test is part of routine pregnancy screenings for one key reason; babies born to mothers colonized with group B strep are at risk of developing critical illnesseslike meningitis and pneumonia in their first weeks of life. Traditional treatment is simple: a round of IV antibiotics during labor. Of course, just because the treatment is straightforward doesn't mean it's without side effects. Like all antibiotics, those administered during labor can wreak havoc on the gut microbiome balance of both mother and baby.
Ashley credits passing her group B strep test this pregnancy to having a balanced and healthy microbiome. “During my pregnancy with Hudson, I believe I didn’t pass my group B strep test due to my poor gut health, but this pregnancy I took Labor of Love daily and I believe it made all the difference.”
There is exciting new research that suggests that group B strep may be able to be prevented or cured with the use of a probiotic supplement. One study found that pregnant participants who took a probiotic supplement once a day has lower incidence of group B strep than those in the control group--while China Medical University researchers discovered that daily probiotic usage during pregnancy even has the potential to reverse a positive group B strep test.
“LoveBug Probiotics was created by a mom, for moms. We offer probiotics for the whole family,” co-founder Ben Harris states. “Everything we do is with the intention to help create healthier, happier families.”
Holding true to their words, the founders have chosen 5 charities that focus on pregnant moms, infants and children across the globe facing hardships. A portion of sales each week will go towards these charities, and LoveBug encourages their family of customers to also visit the charity sites and get involved how they can.
“I want this generation of babies and children to be the healthiest ever,” Ashley says. “That’s why we focus so heavily on education and by getting involved in charities across the globe with like-minded missions, we can continue to spread awareness and raise funds to raise healthy children.”
From showering military mamas to providing basic needs to homeless children, below is the full list of charities LoveBug will be raising funds and awareness for throughout the month of February:
https://www.compassion.com/ - helps moms and babies in third world countries thrive. Holistic child development that begin, in some cases, with prenatal care and go all the way through leadership development for qualified young adults.They take a long-term approach to what they do and go beyond simple involvement in the lives of the children and families they serve.
https://thousanddays.org/ - Is a leading non-profit organization working in the U.S. and around the world to improve nutrition and ensure women and children have the healthiest first 1,000 days.
http://www.homelessprenatal.org/ - For 25 years, HPP has provided poor and homeless families the ability to end childhood poverty. Built on a foundation of supportive, nonjudgmental case management, they empower families, particularly mothers motivated by pregnancy and parenthood, to recognize their strengths and trust in their own capacity to transform their lives.
https://operationshower.org/ - Operation Shower hosts joyful baby showers for military families across the country. The showers are an opportunity for military families to leave the stresses of deployment at home, come together and celebrate.
https://www.milkbank.org/ - Pump for preemies right here. Operating like a blood bank for breast milk, Mother’s Milk Bank accepts milk donations from expecting moms looking to support their babies’ health. According to MMB, fewer than half of moms who deliver a baby prematurely are able to provide their babies with breast milk. Those who donate undergo a strict multi-step screening process, then have their milk monitored and pasteurized to kill all bacteria. Milk is then dispersed to local hospitals to feed babies who can’t get breast milk any other way.
LoveBug also hosted a giveaway to celebrate their daughter's birth by giving away more than 100 packages that included their pre + post natal probiotic, Labor of Love to new mamas or moms to be.