Dear Milk Donor,

Thank you for your support for the donor milk bank.

We are sending this email in response to questions we have had about milk donation and the COVID-19 virus.

Breastfeeding your own baby;

Although not everything is known yet about COVID-19. In 6 cases of breastfeeding mothers testing positive for COVID-19, their breastmilk did not contain the virus.

If a mother develops a COVID-19 infection the recommendation is that she continues to breastfeed her own baby.

The main risk for infants is the close contact with the mother who is likely to share infective airborne droplets and so if you have symptoms the advice is to;

• • Wash your hands for 20 seconds before touching your baby or breast
  • Try and avoid coughing or sneezing on your baby while feeding at the breast

Donating milk to the milk bank;

We will still be using lots of donor milk as it is an important part of the treatment of preterm infants in the South West neonatal network.

Please let us know if you or anyone you live with develops any symptoms of COVID-19;

• New cough
• Or High temperature [37.8 degrees Celsius]

If you or anyone you live with has any of these symptoms we will ask that you stop donating milk from the day the first person’s symptoms started for 14 days or longer if you need to self-isolate for another 7 days, please see this information about self-isolation,

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isolation-advice/

How you can help us to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

• Please wash your hands for 20 seconds with soap and water before handling your breast pump or the milk bottles and labels.
• When your milk is being collected we will ask the drivers not to come into your home. Please wash your hands and then place your milk in one of the plastic bags and tie it up with the treasury tag. Please place your milk into the transport box.

Thank you again for all your support for preterm and sick babies in the Southwest neonatal Network