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Parent24 : Focus : breastfeeding : more : Moms with hepatitis B can breastfeed

Moms with hepatitis B can breastfeed

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With a few precautions, moms infected with the virus can safely breastfeed their babies.

By Genevra Pittman

Pic: Shutterstock

Article originally in Reuters

The hepatitis B virus causes inflammation and swelling of the liver and can lead to chronic damage on the organ. The infection is spread through blood, unclean needles, and sex. It may also pass from a mother to her baby during pregnancy and labour.

It has been unclear whether breastfeeding may also transmit the virus, researchers say. Their report allays those fears.

Even in mothers with the virus, "breastfeeding should be recommended as a valuable source of nutrition to infants," said study author Dr. Zhongjie Shi.

The researchers combined data from 10 previous studies, which compared rates of hepatitis B in the babies of more than 1,000 mothers with the virus. About half of those mothers breastfed their babies.

To prevent transmission of hepatitis B from the mom, babies are given a vaccine and another injected medication soon after birth, and are vaccinated two or three more times during the first few months of life.

By their first birthday, 31 babies out of the 637 with breastfeeding mothers tested positive for hepatitis B. That compared to 33 babies out of 706 who had mothers who didn't breastfeed.

Most of those infants, the researchers explained, had been infected with the virus during pregnancy or childbirth.

Shi said that blood is the easiest way for hepatitis B to travel from mother to baby, followed by amniotic fluid and vaginal secretions. He added that hepatitis B is up to 100 times more infectious than HIV.

Moms should avoid breastfeeding if they have cracked or bleeding nipples or lesions on their breasts, the authors note, as that could be a way to transmit the virus more easily.

Do you think moms with hepatitis B should breastfeed?