A health expert advised pregnant women to get vaccinated against Covid-19 since they are considered immunocompromised from the time they get pregnant.
In a webinar on Friday, May 27, titled "Ang Pagpapasuso sa Panahon ng Pandemya” hosted by the University of the Philippines (UP), Dr. Stella Marie L. Jose emphasized that the vaccine does contain and will not transmit the virus to the baby inside the womb.
Jose is chair of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) Breastfeeding Committee.
"We want to protect our pregnant mothers. , please convince your patients to get vaccinated; it is safe," she added.
There remains insufficient data that prove that the Covid-19 virus is present in the breastmilk but mothers should still follow basic health protocols when feeding their babies, she pointed out.
Jose added that they will not stop promoting getting the vaccine as the pandemic is still ongoing.
‘Kangaroo mother care’ for newborn babies
"Kangaroo mother care” (KMC), which refers to the mother and newborn baby's skin-to-skin contact in the first moments of life, is said to bring numerous benefits and even protection against baby’s death.
Dr. Aurora Gloria I. Libadia, head of the PGH Human Milk Bank, cited that the “unang yakap” or first hug protocol averts more than 70 percent of causes of neonatal death.
Libadia shared that the Philippines ranked 8th among 184 countries with the most number of babies born prematurely.
She also pointed out that three out of four deaths of newborn babies occur within the first week of birth.
To avoid neonatal death, the health expert encouraged mothers to purely breastfeed their babies within 60 minutes after birth, and for the next six months.
Libadia said that KMC also establishes breastfeeding and serves as a "human incubator" that will form a bond between the mother and baby.
Breastmilk can prevent infection related to diarrhea, pneumonia, and sepsis, prevents malnutrition, and increase intelligence scores, she shared. (Luisa Cabato)