Frequently asked questions on COVID-19 vaccines and breastfeeding

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Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and the initiation of COVID-19 vaccinations in different countries from December 2020, varied advice regarding the safety of vaccines for breastfeeding mothers has been emerging. Initially, different scientific and advisory groups recommended that breastfeeding mothers should not receive the vaccine or were cautious about recommending it. However, from January 2021 onwards those recommendations changed, particularly after the issuing of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) interim recommendations for the use of the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine¹ which clarified that breastfeeding mothers can be safely vaccinated with minimal risk. These WHO interim recommendations were later followed by the interim recommendations for the use of the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine against COVID-19² and the interim recommendations for use of the AZD1222 (ChAdOx1-S [recombinant]) vaccine against COVID-19 developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca.³

In response to the need to ensure that these recommendations are disseminated and adopted at a country level and that breastfeeding mothers are optimally supported, a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) has been jointly developed by the IFE Core Group (www.ennonline.net/ife), UNICEF and the COVID-19 Infant Feeding Working Group based on the most recent WHO SAGE guidance. The FAQs are intended to provide answers to healthcare providers and the public, including mothers who are breastfeeding or expressing milk, regarding breastfeeding and the Pfizer–BioNTech, BNT162b2, Moderna and AstraZeneca AZD1222 COVID-19 vaccines. The FAQs are regularly updated and confirm that breastfeeding mothers should be supported to breastfeed and that they can be vaccinated when part of a high-risk group. However, the lack of data available for recommending the vaccine to breastfeeding women is acknowledged by WHO SAGE which has called for this topic to be prioritised by researchers.   

Download the FAQs from https://www.ennonline.net/breastfeedingandcovid19vaccines