Abstract
BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has posed several challenges to the provision of newborn nutrition and care interventions including maternal support, breastfeeding and family participatory care. Italy was the first country to be exposed to SARS-CoV-2 in Europe. One of the measures adopted by the Italian government during COVID-19 pandemic was the total lockdown of the cities with complete confinement at home. We aimed to examine the impact of the lockdown caused by COVID-19 pandemic on exclusive breastfeeding in non-infected mothers.MethodsWe prospectively enrolled 204 mother-baby dyads during lockdown (9 March to 8 May 2020) that we compared to previously studied 306 mother-baby dyads admitted during the year 2018. To reduce the possible effect of confounding factors on exclusive breastfeeding, a 1:1 matching was performed by using an automatized procedure of stratification that paired 173 mother-baby dyads. Feeding modality was collected at discharge, 30 and 90 days of newborn’s life. Exclusive breastfeeding was considered when the infant received only breast milk and no other liquids or solids were given with the exception of vitamins, minerals or medicines.ResultsAt discharge 69.4% of infants were exclusively breastfed during lockdown versus 97.7% of control group, 54.3% at 30 days vs 76.3 and 31.8% vs 70.5% at 90 days (p < 0.001). The proportion of breastfeeding remaining exclusive from discharge to 30-day was similar between groups (about 80%), but it was lower in lockdown group than in control cohort (58.5% vs 92.4%, p < 0.001) from 30- to 90-days.ConclusionsLockdown and home confinement led to a decrease of exclusively breastfeeding in the studied population. Considering the timing to shift from exclusive to non-exclusive breastfeeding, differences between study groups were concentrated during hospital stay and from 30- to 90 days of a newborn’s life, confirming that the hospital stay period is crucial in continuing exclusive breastfeeding at least for the first 30 days, but no longer relevant at 90 days of life.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic has posed several challenges to the provision of newborn nutrition and care interventions including maternal support, breastfeeding and family participatory care
We aimed to examine the impact of the lockdown caused by COVID-19 pandemic on exclusive breastfeeding in non-infected mothers
At each time-point, exclusive breastfeeding was less frequent in lockdown than control period with a temporal reduction trend in both study groups
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has posed several challenges to the provision of newborn nutrition and care interventions including maternal support, breastfeeding and family participatory care. One of the measures adopted by the Italian government during COVID-19 pandemic was the total lockdown of the cities with complete confinement at home. One of the measures adopted by the Italian government was the total lockdown of the cities with complete confinement at home, with the closure of factories, the reduction of both private and public transportation, vacation for schools, and working from home [1, 2]. After discharge the new family remained isolated from family and friends owing to social distancing rules [3]
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