NURSING mothers who test positive for COVID-19 can continue to breastfeed their babies, the Head of Reproductive and Child Health, Family Health Division of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Isabella Sagoe-Moses, has advised.
However, she advised such mothers to wear face masks when breastfeeding the babies as well as wash their hands often with soap under running water whenever they were around their babies in order not to infect them with the virus.
Dr Sagoe-Moses disclosed this in an interview and said studies were ongoing but so far there has not been any evidence to suggest that COVID-19 could be transmitted through breast milk. Nursing mothers who test positive for the virus could breastfeed their babies taking the necessary precaution, she noted.
She, however, warned that it was possible for a COVID-19 positive nursing mother to pass the virus on to the baby through the usual way such as coughing on them and that is why they advise that such positive case mothers wear the mask all the time that they would be around their babies so that they do not pass it on to them.
She pointed out that the benefits of nursing mothers who test positive for COVID-19 breastfeeding their babies far outweighed the negative impact on those not breastfeeding them, adding that if they didn’t breastfeed, the babies might end up with pneumonia, diarrhoea and become malnourished and these were serious killers than the COVID-19 that they feared.
“Even in COVID-19 era, breastfeeding is still the best form of nutrition you can give babies. Breastfeeding protects babies even at this time of COVID so, you should not shy away from breastfeeding,” she admonished.
