Breastfeeding in the times of Novel Coronavirus Pandemic

If it was important before, it has become even more important now! Yes you guessed it right! I am talking about breastfeeding during the novel Corona virus pandemic.

It is no doubt the safest way to feed your baby exclusively for the first 6 months ! Even if you are partially breastfeeding that’s still beneficial as every drop counts!

We are seeing unprecedented trend of events and its scary and confusing for most of us!

As a Lactation Professional I am getting many phone calls , some are routine calls where people are looking for support, some are cancellation calls where people are calling to say they will not be coming for the scheduled appointment as they fear the virus , some are panic calls about whether they should continue to breastfeed or not , and some are because they want to start /restart breastfeeding.

Lets talk about breastfeeding in the times of coronavirus……

• So if you’ve just had your baby or if you are just about to have your baby think and rethink, read the recommendations and decide what you would like to do in terms of feeding your child.
• Breastfeeding provides food, warmth, Protection and immunity. When a child is getting formula milk / animal milk, apart from not getting benefits of mother’s milk, baby is also being exposed to various contaminants that can be present in that milk.
• If you have decided to breastfeed, ask for help if you face any challenges.
• Even if you do not want to go to someone’s clinic / hospital, you can always look for a Lactation professional who does home visits or Tele consults or Video Consults.
• If you were thinking about weaning your baby off your breast….this is not the best time to wean…..keeping into consideration the situation where your child will be more stressed, more irritable because of restrictions, will continue getting the daily immunity boost from you,and The oxytocin release while breastfeeding will keep you relaxed!
• If you have stopped breastfeeding or want to start breastfeeding get in touch with a skilled lactation support professional pronto.

SOME IMPORTANT FACTS…..

• COVID 19 virus at the moment is known to spread via droplets when an infected person coughs and sneezes.
• In limited number of samples the virus was not found in the breastmilk.