Journal article

'First do no harm' overlooked: Analysis of COVID-19 clinical guidance for maternal and newborn care from 101 countries shows breastfeeding widely undermined (Gribble K, Cashin J, et al, 2023)

17 Jan 23
Topic(s): Breastfeeding, Newborn Health
Location: Global
Language(s): English
Audience: Policy makers and legislators, Program designers and implementers
Programs: Strategic use of data
journal
journal

Despite WHO recommendations, many COVID-19 maternal and newborn care guidelines failed to recommend skin-to-skin contact, rooming-in, and breastfeeding as the standard of care. Irregular guidance updates and the discordant, but influential, guidance from the United States Centers for Disease Control may have been contributory. It appeared that once recommendations were made for separation or against breastfeeding they were difficult to reverse. In the absence of quality evidence on necessity, recommendations against breastfeeding should not be made in disease epidemics.

 
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