Breast feeding swine flu

The originating document has been archived. We cannot confirm the completeness, accuracy and currency of the content. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and several health professional organizations state that vaccines given to a nursing mother do not affect the safety of breastfeeding for mothers or infants and that breastfeeding is not a contraindication to either the live, attenuated i. Immunization of the mother during pregnancy increases the amount of influenza antibodies in breastmilk and may offer added protection of their breastfed infants against influenza.

Up until now cases have been doubling weekly, but there was just a 10 per cent rise in the estimated new swine flu diagnoses in the seven days until July 26th. An estimated one in every people in England are thought to have had swine flu since the outbreak began in England at the end of April. Children under the age of one are ten times more likely to have contracted the virus than people over the age of 75, underlining that younger people are at greater risk than the elderly from H1N1. One in 90 children under the age of one are thought to have had the disease compared with one in of the over 75s. So far in England there have been 27 deaths in people confirmed to have swine flu, a quarter of which have been in children under Four of the deaths have been in previously healthy people. A spokesman for NHS London said 15 of the deaths had been in the capital including an eight-year-old girl who died on Sunday July 26th.

What should you do? Quarantine yourself? That might be the ideal medical thing to do, but you have to balance that with what is practical. Every pregnant woman should start thinking about what she would do in that circumstance, how she would protect herself, and her fetus, while still taking care of her family. So talk with your partner, your extended family, and your obstetrician about what you will do, as a family, if one of you is exposed to the disease.

By Laura MacInnis. Less than 40 percent of mothers worldwide breastfeed their infants exclusively in the first six months, as recommended by the WHO. Many abandon it because they don't know how to get their baby to latch on properly or suffer pain and discomfort. This is a problem in both rich and poor countries, she said, calling for more assistance in hospitals, health clinics and communities for new mothers who need information and help.