Breastfeeding with COVID-19 does not infect babies — it may protect them, studies find

The virus that causes COVID-19 does not infect babies from infected mothers via breast milk. New research It was discovered to be led by researchers at the University of Idaho and Washington State University.

In fact, researchers have discovered that COVID-19 mothers’ milk contains antibodies that can fight the virus, and lactating mothers can effectively pass them on to their babies.

These antibodies not only neutralize the virus, said Dr. Michel McGuire of the University of Idaho. He is one of the leading researchers in this study.

“Antibodies specifically kill SARS-CoV-2,” she said.

Of the breast milk samples analyzed from 18 women with COVID-19, none contained viral RNA (ribonucleic acid encoding the viral genome), and data are from breast milk of women with mild to moderate COVID-19 infection We support childcare.

The study has been conducted for a long time, and McGuire and her colleagues at several universities across the country analyzed milk samples from mothers diagnosed with mild to moderate COVID-19.

The first treatise published from their study this week felt a sigh of relief for McGuire.

“That’s what we really wanted to find,” McGuire told the Spokesman Review. “At the beginning of the pandemic, I thought that some milk contained the virus.”

In fact, there were preliminary studies showing that viral RNA was found in breast milk, but other studies found that it wasn’t. McGuire and her team of researchers set out to build, analyze, and sample large amounts of milk to answer that question more clearly.

The· Peer-reviewed studies Published this week, an analysis of breast milk and breast skin swabs from 18 women involved more than 60 women in the study. McGuire said with the same conclusion that there are future publications from their work.

“This supports WHO’s recommendations to continue breastfeeding, which is very reassuring because we made those recommendations before we knew,” McGuire said.

During the early months of the pandemic, instructions from public health authorities and doctors were different for pregnant women. It was unclear if the virus could be transmitted from mother to child, and if so, how.McGuire and a team of researchers Volunteer recruitment From their research, they are sending materials to collect and wipe their milk. They sent those samples back to the lab, where McGuire and others analyzed them.

McGuire is confident in the findings because of how rigorous and rigorous the sampling and analysis were.

Researchers asked participants to wipe their breasts before and after washing them. This makes it possible to analyze viral substances in these samples.

Evidence of viral RNA was detected in 8 of 70 breast skin swabs, and only one of them was considered to be a definitive positive result. However, McGuire said there was no evidence that the RNA detected was actually a living virus.

McGuire believes that the virus detected in the breast may have been previously discovered by other researchers as a virus in breast milk in a previous study. Finally, the virus detected in the female breast did not affect the breastfeeding of the baby during the study.

“Even if 20% of mothers had evidence of the virus in their breasts, it didn’t seem to pose a risk to these babies,” McGuire said.

She said there was no evidence that women should worry because in the women they studied, their babies were not infected with COVID-19 and showed no symptoms.

This study does not suggest that women need to systematically wash their breasts before breastfeeding, but instead “for women who take precautions during breastfeeding and / or breastfeeding. Supports existing recommendations (eg, using respiratory and hand hygiene practices, cleaning front and rear pump parts) to reduce the likelihood of viral infection, “the study states.

If a COVID-19 woman coughs on an exposed breast, it should be washed before breastfeeding, otherwise breastfeeding is safe for mild to moderate COVID-19 women and their babies. ..

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Arielle Dreher’s report on The Spokesman-Review is partially funded by the Report for America and members of the Spokane community. This story can be republished for free by other organizations under a Creative Commons license. Contact our newspaper for more information. Editor-in-chief.