Spatz Diane L, Davanzo Riccardo, Müller Janis A, Powell Rebecca, Rigourd Virginie, Yates Ann, Geddes Donna T, van Goudoever Johannes B, Bode Lars
University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
Institute for Maternal and Child Health Institute, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) Burlo Garofolo, Trieste, Italy.
Front Pediatr. 2021 Feb 3;8:633700. doi: 10.3389/fped.2020.633700. eCollection 2020.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has put enormous stress on healthcare systems and hospital staffing. However, through all this, families will continue to become pregnant, give birth, and breastfeed. Unfortunately, care of the childbearing family has been de-prioritized during the pandemic. Additionally, many healthcare practices during the pandemic have not been positive for the childbearing family or breastfeeding. Despite recommendations from the World Health Organization to promote early, direct breastfeeding and skin to skin contact, these and other recommendations are not being followed in the clinical setting. For example, some mothers have been forced to go through labor and birth alone in some institutions whilst some hospitals have limited or no parental visitation to infants in the NICU. Furthermore, hospitals are discharging mothers and their newborns early, limiting the amount of time that families receive expert lactation care, education, and technical assistance. In addition, some hospitals have furloughed staff or transferred them to COVID-19 wards, further negatively impacting direct care for families and their newborns. We are concerned that these massive changes in the care of childbearing families will be permanently adopted. Instead, we must use the pandemic to underscore the importance of human milk and breastfeeding as lifesaving medical interventions. We challenge healthcare professionals to change the current prenatal and post-birth practice paradigms to protect lactation physiology and to ensure that all families in need receive equal access to evidence-based lactation education, care and technical assistance.
全球新冠疫情给医疗系统和医院人员配备带来了巨大压力。然而，在这一切之中，家庭仍会继续怀孕、分娩和母乳喂养。不幸的是，在疫情期间，对孕产妇家庭的护理已不再被优先考虑。此外，疫情期间的许多医疗做法对孕产妇家庭或母乳喂养并无益处。尽管世界卫生组织建议推广早期直接母乳喂养和皮肤接触，但在临床环境中，这些及其他建议并未得到遵循。例如，在一些机构中，一些母亲被迫独自分娩，而一些医院限制或完全禁止父母探视新生儿重症监护病房中的婴儿。此外，医院过早让母亲和新生儿出院，限制了家庭获得专业泌乳护理、教育和技术援助的时间。此外，一些医院让员工休假或将他们调至新冠病房，这进一步对家庭及其新生儿的直接护理产生了负面影响。我们担心这些针对孕产妇家庭护理的巨大变化会被永久采用。相反，我们必须利用这次疫情来强调母乳和母乳喂养作为挽救生命的医疗干预措施的重要性。我们呼吁医疗专业人员改变当前产前和产后的做法模式，以保护泌乳生理，并确保所有有需要的家庭都能平等获得基于证据的泌乳教育、护理和技术援助。
