Abstract
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has ramifications for the delivery of newborn nutrition and care services. World Health Organization recommends continuation of breastfeeding in these difficult times, with due precautions. If direct breastfeeding is not possible, milk expression should be explored. Pasteurized donor human milk from milk banks may be fed if mother’s own milk is not available. To universalize access to human milk, the Indian government has proposed the establishment of comprehensive lactation management centers/milk banks, lactation management units, and lactation support units at all levels of the public health system. Due to COVID-19, these centers are encountering additional challenges cutting across interventions of rooming in, breastfeeding, milk expression, and provision of donor milk and kangaroo mother care. We discuss issues faced and alleviation measures taken by these centres in relation to provision of an exclusive human milk diet for infants during the pandemic.
Keywords: Breastfeeding, Donor Human Milk, Kangaroo Mother Care, Pandemic
Acknowledgments
Dr. Kumutha J, Saveetha Medical College, Chennai, and Expert Advisor, National Health Mission -Tamil Nadu; Dr. S. Sitaraman, Sawai Man Singh Medical College, Jaipur; Dr. Poonam Singh, Surat Municipal Institute of Medical Education & Research, Surat; Dr. Jayashree Mondkar, Lokmanya Tilak Medical College and Hospital, Mumbai; Dr. Mala Kumar, King George Medical University and Hospital, Lucknow; Dr. Kajal Jain, All India Institute of Medical Science, New Delhi; Dr. Sushma Nangia, Lady Hardinge Medical College and Hospital, New Delhi; Dr. Raghuram Mallaiah and Ohika Chakravarty, Fortis La Femme, New Delhi for providing critical information on neonatal feeding practices during COVID-19 pandemic. Gillian Weaver and Natalie Shenker, global human milk bank specialists for their inputs on the design and Dr Cyril Engmann, Global Program Leader — Maternal, Newborn, Child Health and Nutrition Program, Dr Kiersten Israel-Ballard, Associate Director — Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and Nutrition and Dr. Sudhir Maknikar, Director Programs-RMNCHA+N, PATH for their inputs to the manuscript. Dr. Jayendra Kasar, Technical Specialist, Centre for Health Research and Innovation-CHRI for compiling feeding data from various facilities and providing valuable inputs to the manuscript. Paramita Kundu, Consultant, CHRI for her support in writing and editing this manuscript. Contributors: RCS: conceptualized the design, contributed to manuscript writing and revising it and provided final approval of the manuscript; SJ: provided technical guidance on the content, reviewed the manuscript, and provided final approval of the manuscript. SM: provided technical inputs on the content, reviewed, and provided final approval of the manuscript; JS: provided inputs on the content, reviewed the manuscript, and provided final approval of the manuscript.
Funding: None
Competing interest: None stated.
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