The COVID-19 pandemic has been affecting the care of sick or premature newborn babies, as many of them are unnecessarily separated from their mothers and put at risk of death or long-term health problems.

Now, two studies cited by the World Health Organization (WHO) have shown that thousands of neonatal healthcare workers are not letting mothers with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infection have skin-to-skin contact with their newborns, and about a quarter of those who were surveyed are not allowing breastfeeding. Keeping mothers and babies together and letting the babies have kangaroo mother care could be able to save over 125,000 lives, reported a study published in the Lancet Eclinical Medicine journal.

A study published in the BMJ Global Health noted that two-thirds of the 1,120 healthcare workers surveyed reported that they would separate mothers and babies with a positive COVID-19 test or if there was no clarity on whether they might have the infection. Anshu Banerjee, a WHO expert in maternal and newborn health, stated that newborn babies have a right to life-saving contact with their parents and should not be denied the same due to COVID-19… (Reuters, March 16, 2021)