It seems unlikely that mothers with COVID-19 transmit the disease to their newborn babies, even if they breastfeed and share the same room, provided they take certain precautions, a new small study suggests.
The study found that of 120 babies born to mothers with COVID-19, none contracted the disease during delivery or within two weeks of birth, despite the fact that most mothers breastfed, had skin-to-skin contact, and shared a room with their babies The mothers took measures to prevent COVID-19 spread, which includes wearing surgical masks and washing hands and breasts before having contact and breastfeeding their babies, according to the study, published Thursday (July 23) in the journal The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.
“We hope that our study will provide some reassurance to new mothers that the risk of passing COVID-19 to their babies is very low,” said study co-author Dr. Christine Salvatore, pediatric infectious disease specialist at Weill Cornell. Medicine-New York Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital in New York City, said in a statement. Still, the authors note that their study was relatively small, so larger studies are needed to confirm the results.
Given that COVID-19 is such a new disease, data on the risks of transmission from mother to newborn have been limited. There have been several case reports of Newborns who tested positive for COVID-19 within 48 hours after birth and appears to have contracted the disease in utero, the authors said. But such reports are rare.
Related: Having a baby: stages of pregnancy
The orientation for pregnant women and new mothers with COVID-19 has been changing. At the start of the pandemic, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) initially recommended that mothers with COVID-19 be separated from their newborns, and that babies be fed with expressed breast milk until the mother is no longer infectious. However, the AAP recently updated your guidelines say that mothers with COVID-19 can share a room and breastfeed with certain precautions.
The new study looked at information from mothers who tested positive for COVID-19 and gave birth in one of New York City’s three hospitals between March 22 and May 17. About three-quarters of mothers reported experiencing symptoms, and of these, approximately half had symptoms around the time of delivery.
At the hospital, mothers were allowed to share a room with their newborns, who were kept in closed cribs 6 feet (1.8 meters) from the mother’s bed. Mothers were also allowed to breastfeed if they felt well enough, but they were required to wear surgical masks and wash their hands before holding their babies and washing their breasts earlier. breast-feeding.
All babies were screened for COVID-19 within the first 24 hours after birth, and none tested positive for the disease. Of the 120 babies, 79 were re-screened approximately one week after birth, and 72 were screened two weeks after birth. Again, none tested positive, nor did they show any COVID-19 symptomssaid the report.
Fifty-three babies underwent a video conference remote control at one month of age, and all were well and experiencing typical growth. Overall, there was no difference in outcomes for babies born to mothers who experienced symptoms compared to babies born to mothers with COVID-19 who experienced no symptoms, the study found.
“We know that skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding are important for both the mother-baby bond and long-term infant health. Our findings suggest that babies born to mothers with COVID-19 infection may still benefit from these infection control measures are followed safely if appropriate, “study co-author Dr. Patricia DeLaMora, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Kill Mansky Presbyterian Children’s Hospital in Weill Cornell Medicine-New York, said in a statement. .
The authors note that about a third of the 120 babies did not undergo a follow-up test for COVID-19 after birth, which they say could be due to parents’ fear of going to the doctor (often on public transportation) in In the midst of a pandemic. In addition, the researchers were unable to analyze the babies’ blood, urine, or feces samples for COVID-19 because these types of tests were not approved at the time of the study, they said.
Babies were not screened for antibodies to COVID-19, and it is unclear whether they may have acquired protective antibodies against the disease from their mothers while in the womb or while breastfeeding. Because about half of the mothers were symptomatic shortly before or during delivery, all babies are unlikely to have acquired protective antibodies, the authors said, since mothers take time to develop and transmit them.
The new study provides “valuable data indicating that perinatal transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is unlikely and that allowing newborns to stay in the room and breastfeed is safe, with appropriate precautions,” Dr. Melissa Medvedev, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of California San Francisco, who was not involved in the study, wrote in a comment accompanying the study. (SARS-CoV-2 is the name of the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19).
However, many questions about COVID-19 in pregnancy remain unanswered, Medvedev said, such as how often pregnant women or their babies experienced complications from the disease and how often it spread from mother to child.
Originally published in Live Science.
