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(Reuters) – The COVID-19 pandemic is severely affecting the care of sick or premature newborns, many of them unnecessarily separated from their mothers and at risk of death or long-term health problems, said Tuesday world health experts.
Two new studies cited by the World Health Organization (WHO) found that thousands of newborn health workers do not allow mothers with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infections to have skin-to-skin contact with their newborns, and almost a quarter of those surveyed do not allow breastfeeding.
Still, keeping mothers and babies together and encouraging all babies to benefit from what is called “kangaroo mother care” – which involves early and very close contact between a mother and a newborn – could save more. 125,000 lives, according to a study published in The Lancet Journal EclinicalMedicine.
Newborns around the world have “the right to the vital contact they need with their parents,” and that shouldn’t be denied due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Anshu Banerjee, an expert on the WHO in maternal and newborn health.
“Decades of progress in reducing child deaths will be at risk if we do not act now,” he said in a statement.
The WHO says mothers should continue to share a room with their babies from birth and be able to breastfeed and have skin-to-skin contact – even when COVID-19 is suspected or confirmed.
But a study published in the journal BMJ Global Health found that two-thirds of 1,120 healthcare workers surveyed around the world said they would separate mothers and babies with a positive COVID-19 test or if they didn’t. was not clear if they could have COVID-19.
Over 85% of those surveyed said they feared for their own health, shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), stress and safety among the top concerns. In some hospitals, the investigation found that vital resources, including staff and oxygen supplies, were being shifted from newborn wards to COVID-19 wards.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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