COVID-19’lu kadınların bebeklerinde emzirmenin desteklenmesi üzerine
On promoting breastfeeding of infants born to women with COVID-19
I have read Erdeve et al. (1) review on behalf of the Turkish Neonatal Society (TNS) concerning the decision to breastfeed an infant born to a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)-2-positive women with interest.Although, in my opinion, the TNS should be congratulated for this effort, I felt obliged to comment on the authors’ overly-cautious approach to breastfeeding by women with probable, possible or confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) instead of being in favor of giving mother’s milk to her infant. The authors give an impression of discouraging breastfeeding by stating “we are not completely sure that the virus cannot be transmitted via breast milk.” This statement is correct according to the Chinese Pediatrics COVID-19 working group’s recommendation of routinely separating the newborn from the mother precluding breastfeeding (2); however, a considerable amount of evidence has accumulated since the issuance of these recommendations and many authoritative scientific institutions including the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, have issued guidelines on safe breastfeeding of women with COVID-19 (3-5).Also, the recommendation of “feeding the infant with mother’s milk on condition that maternal milk COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction testing is found negative in institutions capable of analyzing mother’s milk” should be removed from the document entitled “Turkish Neonatology Society Recommendations on Approach to Newborn Infants in Neonatal and Perinatal Period” because novel research has shown that SARS-CoV-2 ribonucleic acid detected in human milk does not represent viable, proliferous viruses (6, 7).In the light of these advances, I think the time has come to stand for mother milk’s more firmly, opting for more favorable statements in our guideline texts, such as “We recommend that mothers with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 should be encouraged to initiate and continue breastfeeding” to maintain, even boost mothers’ and healthcare workers’ enthusiasm for breastfeeding in this era of pandemic (3).
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- 1. Erdeve Ö, Çetinkaya M, Baş AY, et al. The Turkish Neonatal Society proposal for the management of COVID-19 in the neonatal intensive care unit. Turk Pediatri Ars 2020; 55: 86–92.
- 2. Wang L, Shi Y, Xiao T, et al. Chinese expert consensus on the perinatal and neonatal management for the prevention and control of the 2019 novel coronavirus infection (First edition). Ann Transl Med 2020; 8: 47.
- 3. World Health Organization. Clinical Management of COVID-19. Interim Guidance. 27 May, Geneva. Available from: https://apps.who.int/iris/rest/bitstreams/1278777/ retrieve. Accessed September 2, 2020.
- 4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Care for Breastfeeding Women. Interim Guidance on Breastfeeding and Breast Milk Feeds in the Context of COVID-19. Aug 3rd, 2020. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/caring-for-newborns.html. Accessed September 2, 2020.
- 5. Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynacologists. Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection in Pregnancy. Information for healthcare professionals, Version 11. Friday 24 July 2020, London. Available from: https://www.rcog.org.uk/ globalassets/documents/guidelines/2020-07-24-coronavirus-covid-19-infection-in-pregnancy.pdf. Accessed September 2, 2020.
- 6. Türk Neonatoloji Derneği. COVID-19 Enfeksiyonu veya Şüphesi Olan Yeni Doğan Bebeklere Neonatal Ve Perinatal Dönemde Yaklaşım Önerileri. v.2 (23.03.2020). Available from: https://www.neonatology.org.tr/storage/2020/04/Untitled-attachment-00052.pdf. Accessed September 2, 2020.
- 7. Chambers CD, Krogstad P, Bertrand K, et al. Evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 in Breastmilk from 18 Infected Women. Preprint. medRxiv 2020; 2020.06.12.20127944