Aim:

The aim of this study is; to obtain information about the knowledge and attitudes of mothers who live in Tekirdağ region with high risk contact of COVID-19 in family or who have been diagnosed with a definite laboratory finding of COVID-19 about breastfeeding during the COVID-19 pandemic period.

Materials and Methods:

Mothers with COVID-19 high risk contact in the family and have been diagnosed with definite laboratory findings of COVID-19 who are living in Tekirdağ and having a baby between 30 days and 6 months were included in the study. The records of the patients were obtained from Namık Kemal University Medical School, Pediatric Outpatient Clinic Well Child Unit and a questionnaire was applied to the volunteers who accepted to be included in the study. 31 mothers who met the study criteria were reached and 28 of them agreed to participate in the study. After reaching the whole study group, the survey data were collected and their demographic characteristics and breastfeeding experiences, information sources and attitudes during the COVID-19 process were processed using IBM SPSS 20.0 package program and p <0.05 was accepted as the statistical significance level.

Results:

Of the mothers participating in the study, 11 (39.3%) were in high risk contact at home, 17 (60.7%) mothers were definitively diagnosed with COVID-19 by laboratory tests, had mild clinical findings and were treated at home. When the breastfeeding experiences of the mothers were questioned, it was observed that 54.5% of the mothers who were in high risk contact only fed their babies with breast milk, and 36.4% used formula in addition to breast milk. However, 35.3% of the mothers preferred to feed their babies only with formula, in the group that was sick and receiving treatment at home, only 17.6% of them fed their babies with breast milk alone. According to our findings, it was observed that mothers who were sick fed their babies with formula at a higher rate and tended to share a different room with their babies.

Conclusion:

Care should be taken to maintain breastfeeding during treatment for COVID-19. According to the results of our research, it is important to inform families in this regard.

Keywords: COVID-19, breastfeeding, human milk