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For the World Health Organization, the benefits of breastfeeding outweigh the risk of mother-to-child transmission of coronavirus disease.
by Celine Peschard
"WHO has carefully studied the risks for women of passing COVID-19 to their babies during breastfeeding. We know that children are relatively at low risk for the disease, but are at high risk for other diseases and conditions that breastfeeding prevents."said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a virtual press conference.
"Based on the available evidence, WHO's advice is that the benefits of breastfeeding outweigh any potential risk of transmission," he added.
Likewise, the head of the UN health agency said that "mothers whose infection with Covid-19 disease is suspected or confirmed should be encouraged to start or continue breastfeeding and should not be separated from their infants, unless the mother is too sick ".
According to Anshu Banerjee, director of the Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Aging at WHO, the virus that causes Covid-19 disease has not been detected in breast milk to date.
The head of the WHO also alerted on the access of health services to women, as well as to children and adolescent girls: "the indirect effects of COVID-19 on these groups may be greater than the number of deaths from the virus itself ".
These women are therefore more likely to die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth since the pandemic has overwhelmed health systems in many places. To compensate for this, the head of the WHO presented guidelines for health establishments on the maintenance of essential services: "this includes ensuring that women and children can use health services with appropriate infection prevention and control measures, as well as maternal care for newborns, "insisted the WHO official.