Infants Can Benefit If Breastfeeding Mothers Are Given a COVID-19 Vaccine

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• Researchers say a COVID-19 vaccine given to someone who’s breastfeeding can produce antibodies in breast milk within weeks.
• They say the antibodies can help provide protection for infants against the disease.
• They add that a clinical trial indicated there are few side effects from the vaccine to mothers or infants.

Vaccinated women who breastfeed can pass COVID-19 protection to their babies.

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that a COVID-19 vaccination prompts a robust secretion of antibodies in breast milk for up to 6 weeks after vaccination.

Dr. Danelle Fisher, pediatrician and chair of pediatrics at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, finds it “incredibly encouraging” that antibodies were found in infants several weeks out.

“We start by giving moms protection that we hope lasts and that they can pass on to the baby. And it looks like that’s what’s going on,” Fisher told Healthline.