Breastfeeding Practices Among Mothers During COVID-19 in India

Introduction The Covid-19 pandemic is disrupting normal life globally. The COVID-19 pandemic is an emerging concern regarding the potential effects during breastfeeding. The aim of this study was to conduct a systemic review of mother-to -child transmission of COVID-19 during breastfeeding. Method This study systematically searched electronic databases; google scholar, PubMed, Medline, up December 2020. The study was included studies relevant to transmission breast milk and respiratory droplets during breastfeeding of mothers with COVID-19 positive. To identify the quality of data, prism standard was used and Strobe checklist scale. Result A total of 3160 records were identified in this systemic review with eight relevant studies involving 159 mothers (63 mothers with COVID-19 positive, 55 of their breast milk samples tested negative for the-Covid-19. Twenty-one breast milk samples from 8 women tested positive for Covid-19. Of 73 infants were born to mothers with COVID-19 at the time of delivery. Two infants tested positive for Covid-19. The average mother-child separation time was 36•7 ± 21•1 days among mothers confirmed with COVID-19. Out of 22 mothers, ((37.5%) chose to breastfeed their babies after confirm covid-19 positive. Conclusion This study shown that breastfeeding practices were extremely impacted during the COVID-19 epidemic among both confirmed positive cases and suspected mothers. However, the risk of mother-to-infant transmission of Covid-19 vertically or horizontally, in the perinatal period is very low.