Breastfeeding mothers infected with coronavirus unlikely to infect their babies via breastmilk

Mothers with Covid-19 are unlikely to pass the virus to their newborns if simple infection control measures are in place, a small study suggests.

Researchers reported no cases of the disease in 120 babies born to infected mothers, even when both shared a room and the child was breastfed.

Mothers were required to wear surgical masks when handling their child and follow stringent hand and breast washing procedures.

Babies were also kept in enclosed cots six feet (1.8metres) away from their parent at all times except when breastfeeding.

The researchers behind the study say they hope it will reassure pregnant women that the risk of them passing Covid-19 to their child is low.

Mothers in the UK have been recommended to continue to breastfeed their newborns throughout the crisis.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said the benefits of breastfeeding significantly ‘outweigh any potential risks of transmission’.

The latest study, published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health journal, looked at 120 babies born to 116 Covid-19-positive women between March 22 and May 17.

All babies were tested for the virus via a nasal swab within 24 hours after birth and none tested positive.

Some of the mothers recovered from the coronavirus and were allowed home during the study, so only 79 babies were then tested again a week after birth.

Some babies born to coronavirus-infected mothers already have antibodies against the viral disease, one of the UK’s top doctors revealed last month.

Dr Patrick O’Brien, vice president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said a ‘very small’ number of newborns seemed to have developed an immune response against the virus while still inside the womb.

They noted that, at the time of the study, blood, fecal and urine Covid-19 tests had not been approved.

This means some of the children might have been infected inside their mothers’ wombs and cleared the disease by the time they were born.

The researchers also relied on what the mothers reported themselves about their hand hygiene and mask usage.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said that separating mothers and babies at birth was more detrimental than the risk of Covid for infants.

Just a handful of children have caught the coronavirus in Britain, and experts believe infants’ risk of contracting the virus is ‘unbelievably low’.

Doctors say infected children are far more likely to have no symptoms than they are to develop a severe case of COVID-19.