Covid Jab Benefits Breastfeeding Mothers and Babies

Medical staff are preparing to administer the Covid-19 vaccine. File Photo | AFP

Breastfeeding provides children with a good start to life. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends it as the best source of nutritious foods for 6-month-old babies.

Among its many benefits is the ability to boost the immunity of breast milk. This allows the mother to immunize her child against a variety of conditions during the first few months of childbirth.

When people get sick or get vaccinated, the body usually produces antibodies aimed at attacking the viruses and bacteria that cause the disease.

After recovery, the antibodies remain in the body. And they have a memory of the bugs that cause the disease and how to destroy them.

If these viruses and bacteria attack in the future, the body will be ready to fight them and prevent the infected from getting sick before they cause harm to the body.

For example, when someone suffers from chickenpox, they are often immune to chickenpox.

Therefore, they are very unlikely to get sick again, thanks to the antibodies produced when they were sick.

Vaccines help the disease-causing insects to be introduced into the body in a weakened state and develop immunity to the disease-causing viruses and bacteria without getting sick.

These antibodies are usually passed from the mother to the foetation via breast milk, thus immunizing the baby against the myriad of diseases that the mother is immune to.

This type of immunity is called passive immunity because the baby is given the antibody rather than making it himself.

Immunity is also temporary and begins to weaken after the first few months.

Therefore, the longer a child is breast-fed, the longer it is protected from passive immunity.

In the current competition for the Covid-19 vaccine, it is unclear whether breastfeeding mothers may be vaccinated due to safety concerns of breastfeeding babies.

These fears can now be stopped. A new study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology allows lactating mothers vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccine to pass protective antibodies to their babies via breast milk for at least 80 days after vaccination.

A new study from the University of Washington School of Medicine, based in the United States, provides some of the first evidence that breastfeeding provides a long-term immune response to the infants of vaccinated mothers.

“Our study showed a significant increase in antibodies to the Covid-19 virus in breast milk two weeks after the first shot. This response persisted for almost three months of study. “I did,” said Dr. Jeannie Kelly. , The lead author of the study and an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Washington.

She states: “Antibody levels were still high at the end of our study, so protection could be even longer.”

This study is based on a small study of mothers who provided frozen breast milk samples after two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine.

“Currently there is a lot of false information about vaccines. There are really scary and misleading posts on social media designed to scare mothers. So we need to look at science. I felt, “said Dr. Kelly.

“We know that these types of antibodies cover the baby’s mouth and throat and protect him from illness when the baby is breastfeeding. Therefore, vaccination during breastfeeding is a mother. Not only does it protect your baby, it may also protect your baby.

During the study, researchers tracked weekly levels of Covid-19 antibody in breast milk before the mother’s first vaccination and for 80 days after the first vaccination.

The female babies included in the study ranged from 1 to 24 months of age.

The results of this study confirmed that breast milk contained high levels of antibodies immediately after the first vaccination. It reaches immunosignificant levels within 14-20 days of the first vaccination.

Other recent studies have shown that the Covid-19 vaccine produces antibodies that are passed to lactating babies via breast milk, which results in long-term specific levels of these antibodies in breast milk. It is believed to be the first study to be followed.

“Our study is limited by a small number of participants, but the findings provide promising news about the potential immune effects on post-vaccinated breastfeeding babies,” the study said. Dr. Misty Good, senior author and assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington, said. ..

“Our paper is the first to show that Covid-19 antibodies persist in breast milk for several months after the mother’s vaccination,” she said.

The findings are similar to previous studies of maternal vaccination that showed that breast milk contained high levels of antibodies for up to 6 months after influenza and whooping cough vaccination.

Infection rate

Researchers need further research on maternal Covid-19 vaccination to characterize the length of antibody production in breast milk and its effect on infant infection rates, but recent studies have shown that Covid-19 We continue to ensure that vaccines offer real benefits for protecting both. Mom and child.

“We find that Covid-19 infections during pregnancy are more serious and the main advantage of vaccination is that it provides protection before the mother really gets sick, which is also dangerous for the foetation. I know it’s possible, but now about 70,000 pregnant women are vaccinated with Covid-19 and there is no evidence of harm, “says Dr. Kelly.

“Currently, we see a series of new data showing that maternal vaccines also help protect babies through the transmission of antibodies through the placenta and breast milk during pregnancy and lactation.

“This is information we didn’t have a few months ago and is really helpful in giving better advice to patients considering vaccination. Preventing pregnant and lactating mothers as soon as possible. It is highly recommended to get vaccinated. “