Dr Mohamed Ilyas Khan, clinical associate and certified lactation consultant (obstetrics and gynaecology department), Al Khor Hospital.
Vaccination to protect against influenza is not only safe for breastfeeding women but also recommended, says Dr Mohamed Ilyas Khan, clinical associate and certified lactation consultant (obstetrics and gynaecology department), Al Khor Hospital.
Dr Khan asserts that according to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “breastfeeding is fully compatible with flu vaccination”.
“The CDC recommends influenza immunisation for all persons who are six months of age or older. To protect infants and young children, it specifically recommends the flu vaccine for women who are breastfeeding and other household members and contacts of children less than five years of age,” said Dr Robert M Lawrence in Breastfeeding Medicine, the official journal of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM), of which he is senior associate editor.
Dr Lawrence is also a professor of paediatric immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Florida, Gainesville.
ABM president Arthur Eidelman said in the same journal.
“Protecting a breastfeeding mother against flu also reduces the risk of transmission to her infant and other young children in the household, who are at especially high risk for influenza complications.”
Flu vaccines and antiviral medication are not recommended for children who are less than six months and one-year old, respectively.
Dr Khan advises that the best flu protection for infants is prevention. With the mother’s vaccination and breastfeeding, protective antibodies may be transferred through the breast milk, further reducing an infant’s risk of infection.
He mentioned a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine that reported on a study of flu vaccination in pregnant women, which showed it not only to be secure and effective in protecting pregnant women against influenza infection, but also safe for the baby.
Researchers from the United States National Institutes of Health and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health have found that among pregnant women with influenza during pregnancy, the risk of foetal death increases two-fold.
Breastfeeding does not adversely affect a woman’s immune response and a breastfeeding mother can receive the influenza vaccine.
