Page Two

Even the Fetus Is Ready to Fight

For months before birth, the fetus is gearing up for battle. It is producing weapons for the immune system. By the time baby is born, its defenses are being prepared to detect and neutralize foreign substances. Antibodies from its mother are in the baby’s blood, already in higher concentrations than in its mother’s. Phagocytes are waiting in baby’s tissues to gobble up any foreign invaders. These and other defenders against disease are in the trenches, ready for battle. And well that they are, for at the moment of birth, the newborn is exposed to the massive onslaught of ever-present microorganisms.

Shortly after birth the baby’s immune system gets a big boost in its firepower to fight off any invaders​—the ultimately decisive firepower that comes with baby’s first swallows of mother’s milk. The breast milk of those first few days is called colostrum, and it is packed with a variety of antibodies. It sends baby off to the wars well equipped.

“By the age of two or three months, . . . weapon manufacturers in the red bone marrow and thymus are working flat out. When the child is ten years old, the human immune system is at its strongest, armed to the teeth. Thereafter, its powers gradually deteriorate.”​—The Body Victorious, pages 34-5.

With life’s beginning, the wars begin, and they will not end until the last breath is drawn.

[Picture Credit Line on page 2]

Lennart Nilsson