Protecting Human Milk and Breastfeeding in a COVID-19 World & Beyond

We are excited to announce a 5 part webinar series titled, Breastfeeding Initiation in Crisis: The Aftereffects of COVID-19.

Breast milk initiation and breastfeeding has changed drastically over the last year due to the effects of COVID-19 on our hospital systems, our healthcare professionals and breastfeeding families. Join us for a series of thought leadership-based webinars designed to raise awareness to COVID-19 and breastfeeding and the impact of the coronavirus on breast milk initiation. Each month, we’ll learn about areas of breastfeeding research from leading human milk researchers and clinicians to better understand these dynamic changes, current research and findings, and where we go from here. This series will kick off Thursday, February 4^th 9:00- 10:00 am CST.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has put a strain on healthcare systems and hospital staffing and care. The healthcare focus has been on the care of those individuals diagnosed with the virus and requiring intensive care, the prevention of further spread of the virus, and vaccine development. However, through all this, families have continued on their reproductive journeys. There is evidence that care of childbearing families has been de-prioritized, with healthcare resources being deployed instead to focus on the care of COVID-19 positive patients and the mitigation of transmission, often at the expense of existing healthcare programs. Furthermore, birth and breastfeeding experiences and care have been disrupted for all mothers, even if they are not COVID-19 positive or a Person Under Investigation. This has led to mothers reporting stress and anxiety related to pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding as a result of the pandemic.

We are concerned that these massive changes in the care of childbearing families are going to be permanently adopted. This pandemic will also likely cause the disparities in breastfeeding to widen. Families with the most knowledge and most resources may be able to navigate the current landscape. However, for those families without a strong breastfeeding culture, family network, and financial resources, navigation of breastfeeding challenges will likely result in the mother discontinuing breastfeeding early.

We must use the pandemic to underscore the importance of human milk and breastfeeding as lifesaving medical interventions. The current prenatal and post-birth practice paradigms need to be drastically changed to protect lactation physiology and to ensure that all families in need receive equal access to evidence-based lactation education, care and technical assistance.

Learning objectives:

1. Discuss the state of the science on human milk & COVID-19
2. Articulate the impact of the pandemic on the provision of evidence based lactation support & care
3. Identify effective strategies to change the current paradigm