Sharing here what I shared on my Instagram account lately.

Before I share the most natural ways to pass immunity to your infant, I would like to point out that this post is not about whether or not you should vaccinate your child.

There are so many articles on that topic that you yourself should research about, and for this topic, I cannot compress all the research and articles and debates in one post.

Instead, I am sharing this because usually, when we hear the term immunization, we automatically think of vaccines, when in reality, there are also natural ways mothers can pass on immunity to their children, and by doing these, we are upping their chance for healthier bodies for years.

Ready to read? Here we go!

1. PASSIVE IMMUNITY – The very first immunization you can give your child is very effortless, actually. Your body is at work without you even knowing it. On the last three months of your pregnancy, your body starts to produce ANTIBODIES and passes them on to your unborn child through your placenta. This is called passive immunity and it is really done by your body to prepare your child for his/her arrival outside the womb.

2. VAGINAL DELIVERY – Upon birth, your child’s very first immunization is through your birth canal – the mother passes on her microbes (vaginal and bowel) to her child for good reason. THIS is a must-read article. To quote:

“Another element of the microbiome crisis is the sharp rise in the number of births via Caesarean section. This form of medical intervention saves the lives of many mothers and babies. But when the procedure is not medically required, it unnecessarily interferes with an important stage of development.

Traditionally, the initial inoculation of a newborn baby with the mother’s microbiomes happens when a baby travels through the mother’s birth canal.

A C-section thus disrupts an age-old transmission process, and the effects are real and serious. A child born by C-section is significantly more likely to develop allergies than those who were born naturally, due to an absence of microbes that are critically involved in the development of the immune system.

To make matters more dramatic: since a baby girl born by C-section has permanently lost essential microbes, as an adult she cannot pass these essential microbes on to her own offspring.”

THIS is also a must-read article, and in here it states: “When an emergency cesarean is performed after membranes rupture and labor has begun, the baby acquires fewer of the mother’s microbes than it would during a vaginal birth, BUT many more than from a scheduled cesarean. These differences in the gut microbiota were found to persist in children until at least 7 years of age.”

My take here? Of course if medically necessary, we would all go for a cesarian birth, but if not — vaginal delivery is the BEST way to go. Second best would be emergency c-section after labor has begun. The last option would be a scheduled cesarean birth.

3. BREASTFEEDING – After vaginal delivery, your child’s source of immunization is BREASTFEEDING. Did you know that for when you breastfeed your newborn, you actually share your immunity with your child so that your child can focus on developing important systems (Nervous and Skeletal) in the body in order to survive? Because of the limited space in utero, continued skeletal and neurological growth cannot be accomplished while in the womb and so they must continue at an accelerated rate outside, hence the power of the activation of the enteromammary pathway (sharing of immune systems).

After that, breastfeeding continues to have benefits. When you direct feed, the moment your baby’s saliva/ skin touches your breast, signals are sent for you to create antibodies your baby needs at the moment. A mother’s breasts absorb bacteria from the baby’s skin which is then transported into the mother’s own system where she makes antibodies specific to fighting that bacteria. So if there are viruses around where you are and you breastfeed, your body will make something your baby needs to up his/her immunity. This is why breastfed babies (especially those who are directly fed and on demand) often have strong immunity — it doesn’t mean they don’t get sick, but they usually recover faster and illness isn’t as grave).