by Antonella Sagone *
A study carried out by the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital and the Umberto I Polyclinic in Rome, published in the scientific journal Jama, provided the evidence on the protection the infant receives through breast milk, including with regard to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Not only does breast milk carry antibodies and immune complexes against the virus, but it also “trains” the baby’s immune system to make its own in the long run.
These data are yet another confirmation of a protection that has long been known both for the coronavirus and for many other types of infections. “At the moment there are no vaccines for newborns”, says Dr. Carsetti, head of Diagnostics of Immunology to the Infant Jesus; “immune complexes could represent an immunization system that can be administered by mouth, which could protect the baby in the first days of life “.
This confirmation has a particular value as it strengthens the recommendations issued by our health institutions since last year, in which it was specified that mothers and babies should not be kept apart, nor should breastfeeding be prevented, not even in the case of a Covid positive mother. The fear of contagion has in fact led in recent months to modify the protocols that provided for uninterrupted contact between mothers and newborns. These protocols have a great diversity on the territory, with indications that often differ from the guidelines expressed by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, the Ministry of Health and other medical institutions.
To this day, many maternity wards not only prevent positive (non-symptomatic) mothers from being with and breastfeeding their children, but healthy mothers and babies often separate at birth for many hoursuntil the negative response of a tampon arrives. Practices without scientific basis, given that not only is it recommended not to separate healthy mothers and babies even during periods of lockdown, but contact and breastfeeding are recommended even when the mother is ill (in the latter case, with the sole precaution of hand hygiene and mask). In fact, already in 2019 systematic reviews and observational studies showed that the vertical transmission of the virus from mother to newborn, an event in itself already extremely rare, did not occur in any case through breast milk.
Information that supports what we had already exposed as a Working Group in the event of 13 May 2021 dedicated to the birth path in the pandemic. In fact, in our profession we often find ourselves welcoming, even months and years after childbirth, maternal feelings of mourning and frustration related to these early separations imposed at the moment of birth, not always for actual reasons of medical emergency, but often for the implementation of protocols. based on defensive medicine rather than on the protection of health processes. In short, mother-infant proximity and breastfeeding should not be considered as risk factors that make the dyad more vulnerable, but on the contrary strengths and crucial factors of protection against viral infections, Including Covid.
The mother-infant dyad must be considered and treated as a biological and functional unit, whose psycho-neuro-endocrine-immune systems interact and integrate each other. The protocols for the care and management of the dyad in childbirth and the puerperium must be based on this basic concept, consistently throughout the Italian territory, as already recommended by national and international organizations.
The study of the Child Jesus therefore calls us to recover and consolidate good practices to protect the bond between the mother and her child, even in times of pandemic.
* Psychology and Perinatal Health Working Group Psychologists Order of Lazio