Thanks to everyone for responding on and off list to my question earlier today.
I read all the posts, checked out quite a couple of links and gave all the info some thought. I must admit that I still feel my/our question did not get fully answered.
It seems that either my question was not understood or... I didn't read careful enough or... we just don't really know yet! ;-)
Sam asked, at the end of her posting: "If we test a baby whose mother shows immunity to Virus AX, is the baby going to show immunity to Virus AX, or is the baby going to have an increased immune response, period?" This is exactly what we were wondering about.
I checked out the influenza references Liz made us aware of, but found that most of the references were about the safety and effect of vaccines for pregnant women, which is important and interesting... but not an answer to the question. The issue on debate was specifically about this: do flu and vaccination hand down mom's antibodies she produces tailor made for this infection or does the whole system get a boost *in general*, which is very helpful in itself?
Well, I hope my colleague will manage to come to some kind of agreement for the newspaper article and we will try and invite Lars Hanson over and ask him to explain all the miracles of immunity, as far as he has disentangled them, to us in person! hahaha
Thanks again; always great to receive so many suggestions and input in such a short time.

Warmly,

Marianne Vanderveen IBCLC, Netherlands

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