IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON BREASTFEEDING MOTHERS IN KAKAMEGA COUNTY

According to World Health Organization (WHO), breastfeeding protects newborns from getting sick and also helps protect them throughout their infancy and childhood. 

Breastfeeding is particularly effective against infectious diseases because it strengthens the immune system by directly transferring antibodies from the mother. 

With several cases of Covid-19 in the country, WHO recommends that mothers with any symptoms who are breastfeeding or practicing skin-to-skin contact should take precautions. 

The Corona Virus has impacted both positively and negatively on breastfeeding mothers in Kakamega County.  Lilian a mother of three is employed at a public University in the county and says that Covid-19 is a blessing in disguise for she got her third born child end of February 2020 and her maternity leave was ending in May 2020 but because of the Stay at Home directive by the government to help curb the spread of Corona Virus, she continues taking care her baby.  “This virus is not a good thing at all but it has helped me as a working mother to take care of my new born baby for more than three months a period given by the employer immediately after delivery”.

She adds that house helps are scarce now days and if one is lucky to find one, they are expensive and unfriendly to the children.

Since the announcement of the first Covid-19 case in Kenya, most people have been working on shifts or from home.  Jacky who works for a media house as a correspondent in the County says she was advised to take non-paid leave and given the fact that correspondents earn on stories published, it means no money for her.

With a 6 months old baby in the house, she says it’s difficult to do field work assignments and this is the only way she earns a living.

She adds that with the situation, she was forced to go back to the village for life in town became hard that she wasn’t able to pay rent and feed her baby at the same time.

This period of the pandemic has been a challenge to me as a breastfeeding mother of a one-year-old daughter says Violet Musimbi a Chief Radiographer at Kakamega County Referral hospital.

Violet says that every day when she gets home from work, her baby always run to her for a hug after which she cleans her breasts ready to breastfeed but covid-19 has disrupted this routine.

She says that due to the government directives to help reduce infections to family members, no more hugs with her baby and on arrival to the house, she must take a bath, clean the clothes she was wearing and dispose the masks before breastfeeding.

This process she says takes a lot of time which makes the baby cry uncontrollably for being impatient.

Josphine Bulimo a nurse taking care of breastfeeding mothers at the postnatal section at Kakamega County Referral Hospital says that when a mother is breastfeeding there is positioning of the baby on the breast a process she is to practically show the mother but covid-19 has made it impossible.

She says that this to be done, as a care taker she must be close to the mother, hold the baby and ensure proper attachment but it’s not easy without protective gears for fears of transmitting the virus or being infected. 

She adds that the only thing left to be done is to give advice at a distance which she says is wrong.

World Health Organization(WHO) recommends breastfeeding saying that no live coronavirus is found in mother’s milk. In a news conference this month as indicated on the website, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that it had carefully investigated the risk of mothers transmitting COVID-19 to their babies during breastfeeding and based on the evidence at hand, the benefits of breastfeeding outweigh any potential risks of transmission. 

With this assurance from WHO, mothers have nothing to worry about as far as infecting their babies with covid-19 during breastfeeding.