Breastfeeding/Breast Milk Safety in Infants of Mothers with Suspected or Confirmed COVID-19 Infection

The purpose of this systematic review was to determine whether suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infected mothers in the lactation period can breastfeed their infants; and whether suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infected mothers can breastfeed their infants by taking some precautions. The study also aimed to present the measures that can be taken in line with the evidence. The studies conducted after November 2019 and including infants of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infected mothers were reviewed between 2019 and 2020. A literature review was conducted in five electronic databases (MEDLINE, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, and Scopus) to reach original quantitative studies in English. The present authors retrieved 46 of the 1,229 studies included after screening. Three studies were cross-sectional studies, 30 were case studies, and 13 were cohorts. In most of the sources examined, it was concluded that most of the breastfed infants had negative findings for SARS-Cov-2 infection in PCR. In line with the limited data available, it was concluded that most of the breastfed infants had negative findings for SARS-Cov-2 infection in PCR; and breastfeeding mothers should initiate breastfeeding by taking protective measures.