Breastfeeding women encouraged to receive COVID-19 jab
MB – Published March 25, 2021, 2:49 PM
Breastfeeding women may get vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), a health expert said on Thursday, March 25.
Any type of COVID-19 vaccine can be offered to breastfeeding women, said Dr. Mianne Silvestre of the Health Professionals Alliance Against COVID-19– Kalusugan ng Mag-ina and Asia Pacific Center for Evidence-Based Healthcare.
“Yes. Breastfeeding women can get any COVID-19 vaccine. Despite limited data on this, the World Health Organization states that if a breastfeeding woman is part of a group recommended for vaccination, (then) vaccination can be offered,” said Silvestre in her presentation during a media forum hosted by the Department of Health (DOH).
Silvestre also added that it is “not recommended to discontinue breastfeeding before or after vaccination.”
“If you deny a woman of a vaccine because she is breastfeeding or nagka-dilemma tuloy sya ‘ayoko magpa vaccine kasi mas importante sa aking ang breastfeeding ko,’ then we lose more…why? Because hindi lamang po COVID-19 virus ang nandito sa paligid natin (If you deny a woman a vaccine because she is breastfeeding or she has a dilemma, saying ‘I don’t want to get vaccinated because breastfeeding is more important at this point’ then we lose more….why? Because it is not just the COVID-19 virus that is around us, there are also other [viruses]),” she explained.
“Nandyan din yung mga virus at bacteria na mga sanhi na tinatawag natin na (There are also viruses and bacteria that cause what we call) broncho or acute pneumonia, lower respiratory tract infection… These are some of the infections that can (affect) our infants and young children if we deprive them of breastfeeding,” she added.
Offering COVID-19 vaccines to breastfeeding women is in line with the recommendation of the World Health Organization, said Silvestre.
“Many countries recommend that the vaccine can be received while breastfeeding and this is in line with recommendations from WHO and some countries like the United Kingdom, Australia, and the US,” she said.
Silvestre said a preliminary study in the United States found presence of antibodies in the breastmilk of lactating women who were already vaccinated against COVID-19.
“So very early evidence, hindi pa po napa-publish but when they studied the breast milk, yung gatas ng ina ng anim na nagpapasusong ina na nakareceive ng vaccines (So very early evidence, it is not yet published but when they studied the breast milk of six breastfeeding mothers who received vaccines) in that country, they were able to detect in the breastmilk of the vaccinated women, antibodies against COVID-19,” said Silvestre.
“This is very preliminary, this is very early evidence but there could be a large potential benefit of a vaccinated mother who breastfeeds passing on antibodies against COVID-19 virus to her own infant,” she added.
SOURCE: https://mb.com.ph/2021/03/25/breastfeeding-women-encouraged-to-receive-covid-19-jab/?fbclid=IwAR2aoQgUXKC2ZiW5nwmhnFPP6UnlZ7RiuF9gPBxcr-yIdN8bF6tzT7NHjc8
