World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion states, breast­feed­ing is one of the most ef­fec­tive ways to en­sure child health and sur­vival. How­ev­er, near­ly two out of three in­fants are not ex­clu­sive­ly breast­fed for the rec­om­mend­ed six months—a rate that has not im­proved in TWO decades. It al­so says that if breast­feed­ing were scaled up to near uni­ver­sal lev­els, about 8,20,000 child lives would be saved every year.

World Breast­feed­ing Week (WBW) is the glob­al cam­paign start­ed in 1992, cel­e­brat­ed every Au­gust 1st to 7th. WBW has ad­dressed an­nu­al themes in­clud­ing women and work, com­mu­ni­ty sup­port, ma­ter­ni­ty leave, econ­o­my and now with­in the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic; the safe­ty of vac­ci­na­tion while breast­feed­ing.

Sig­nif­i­cant­ly in 2016, WBW be­came aligned with the Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goals (SDGs) adopt­ed by all UN mem­ber states.

Breast­feed­ing in the con­text of COVID-19

Is breast­feed­ing rec­om­mend­ed dur­ing the coro­n­avirus out­break?

YES. Breast­feed­ing is par­tic­u­lar­ly ef­fec­tive against in­fec­tious dis­eases be­cause it strength­ens the im­mune sys­tem by di­rect­ly trans­fer­ring an­ti­bod­ies from the moth­er. As with all con­firmed or sus­pect­ed COVID-19 cas­es, moth­ers with any symp­toms who are breast­feed­ing or prac­tic­ing skin-to-skin con­tact should take pre­cau­tions.

Can breast milk trans­mit the COVID-19 virus?

NO. The trans­mis­sion of the COVID-19 virus through breast­milk and breast­feed­ing has not been de­tect­ed. While breast­feed­ing, a moth­er should still im­ple­ment ap­pro­pri­ate hy­giene mea­sures, in­clud­ing wear­ing a med­ical mask if avail­able and strict hand sani­ti­sa­tion, to re­duce the pos­si­bil­i­ty of droplets with COVID-19 be­ing spread to her in­fant.

Is there any risk if I breast­feed my ba­by if I have COVID-19?

The con­se­quences of not breast­feed­ing and sep­a­ra­tion be­tween moth­er and child can be sig­nif­i­cant. At present, da­ta are not suf­fi­cient to con­clude ver­ti­cal trans­mis­sion of COVID-19 through breast­feed­ing.

Fol­low­ing de­liv­ery, should a ba­by still be im­me­di­ate­ly placed skin-to-skin and breast­fed if the moth­er is con­firmed/sus­pect­ed to have COVID-19?

YES. Im­me­di­ate and con­tin­ued skin-to-skin care, in­clud­ing kan­ga­roo moth­er care, im­proves ther­mal reg­u­la­tion of new­borns and sev­er­al oth­er phys­i­o­log­i­cal out­comes, and is as­so­ci­at­ed with re­duced neona­tal mor­tal­i­ty. The nu­mer­ous ben­e­fits of skin-to-skin con­tact and breast­feed­ing sub­stan­tial­ly out­weigh the po­ten­tial risks of trans­mis­sion and ill­ness as­so­ci­at­ed with COVID-19

Is it nec­es­sary for a moth­er with con­firmed/sus­pect­ed COVID-19 to sani­tise ex­posed ar­eas be­fore she breast­feeds di­rect­ly or be­fore ex­press­ing milk?

If a moth­er is con­firmed/sus­pect­ed to have COVID-19, has just coughed over her ex­posed breast or chest, then she should gen­tly wash the breast with soap and warm wa­ter for at least 20 sec­onds pri­or to feed­ing. It is not nec­es­sary to wash the breast be­fore every breast­feed or pri­or to ex­press­ing milk.

Can I breast­feed my child if I am se­vere­ly ill with coro­n­avirus dis­ease?

If you are se­vere­ly ill with COVID-19 or suf­fer from oth­er com­pli­ca­tions that pre­vent you from car­ing for your in­fant or con­tin­u­ing di­rect breast­feed­ing, ex­press milk to safe­ly pro­vide breast­milk to your in­fant.