HUMAN MILK , PREGNANCY AND COVID-19
able to use our existing pregnancy and lactation study protocols to address the new research questions about the safety of vaccines ,” says Chambers .
Over the course of the next 18 months , MotherToBaby pregnancy studies recruited more than 2,000 people across the U . S . and Canada who had been vaccinated with one or more doses of a COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy . The study continues to collect outcome information for parents and infants through the one-year post-partum period .
Over the same period , the Human Milk Research Biorepository recruited more than 1,200 lactating parents who had been vaccinated against SARSCoV-2 , obtained information about vaccine-related side-effects and collected serial milk samples before , during and after vaccination .
“ We found a similar side-effect profile in parents who were vaccinated compared to the general population , and we found no evidence of serious adverse events in the infants who were being human milk fed ,” says Chambers .
Additional analyses of these data are ongoing and expected to be published later this year .
“ We will continue to address the benefits and safety of COVID-19 vaccinations , booster doses and new vaccine formulations , as well as new antivirals and other new treatments during pregnancy and lactation ,” says Chambers .
The group is exploring strategies to create a ‘ Public Health Surveillance & Rapid Response Team ’ that builds on the unique human milk expertise at UC San Diego and combines it with the university ’ s new PREPARE Institute . The entity will develop response protocols that can be activated as soon as the next pandemic or other environmental threat emerges .
“ Next time , we will be even faster in determining if human milk and novel vaccines or other therapeutics are safe and potentially even beneficial for the baby ,” says Bode . “ We had the right expertise and collaborators at hand when COVID-19 hit , but we won ’ t always be this lucky if we don ’ t learn from this pandemic and put a structured response plan in place .” •
CRITICAL SUPPORT
The University of California Health Milk Bank , operated by UC San Diego Health , is the first milk bank in the San Diego region , and only the second of its kind in California . The milk bank was initially established in 2016 with private support from Hannah and Zachary Johnson and expanded in 2020 with an additional gift from the couple . The UC Health Milk Bank provides pasteurized donor human milk to hospitals for feeding sick or premature infants and to families at home who wish to provide human milk for their child . Milk is prioritized for babies with medical needs or who are newborns .
“ Using human milk to feed the smallest premature infants improves their outcomes and helps reduce the risk of devastating bowel complications that occur in about four percent of these infants ,” says Lisa Stellwagen , MD , executive and medical director of the UC Health Milk Bank and a pediatrician at UC San Diego Health .
As parents grapple with the national infant formula shortage , the UC Health Milk Bank and milk donors , like Elizabeth Imada , have stepped in to help some of the most vulnerable patients .
“ I pump for the neonatal intensive care babies . Breast milk is sometimes the only thing that their tiny stomachs can digest . It ’ s awesome that my milk is beneficial in so many ways ,” says Imada .
In just over a two-week span , the UC
Health Milk Bank saw a five-fold increase in milk donor inquiries and a 30 percent increase in milk orders from families at home . Healthy lactating parents who have extra frozen milk are welcome to apply to donate . Applicants complete an extensive questionnaire and are carefully screened before donation ; the milk is also pasteurized and processed using high-quality laboratory practices .
Learn more at UCmilkbank . ucsd . edu
UC SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE 13