Presentation Information

COVID-19 Guidance for Maternal and Newborn Care: Who’s Doing What and Why

• Speaker: Karleen Gribble , BRurSc(Hons), PhD
• Presentation Type:
• Duration: 60 Mins
• Credits: 1 CERP, 1 Nursing CEU, 1 CME, 0.1 Midwifery CEU, 1 Dietetic CEU

Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the care of pregnant, birthing, and post-partum women and their infants all over the world.

Where women are suspected or confirmed as having COVID-19, hospital practices have ranged from isolating infants from their mothers and proscribing the provision of expressed breastmilk to supporting mothers to have skin-to-skin with their infants, early initiation of breastfeeding, direct breastfeeding, and rooming in day and night.

This presentation will briefly summarize the evidence base for breastfeeding and close mother-infant contact in the COVID-19 pandemic. It will also describe the variance in government and professional development guidance around the world, anomalies in guidance, which guidance documents have had the most influence internationally, and provide examples of good and poor practice in guidance development. Finally, this presentation will discuss the importance of emergency planning for infant and young child feeding and the need to learn from the mistakes of the COVID-19 pandemic.