COVID Vaccine 101 for Skilled Lactation Providers

As information is rapidly unfolding about the new mRNA COVID vaccines and lactating families, we sat down with Dr. Lori Feldman-Winter to help our community get the information they need to support those with questions right now.

Dr. Lori Feldman-Winter is a fellow in the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) and helped to bring their recent statement to fruition. She is also on faculty at the Department of Pediatrics, Cooper Medical School, Rowan University and Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper, Cooper University Health Care, Camden, New Jersey, US. In these interviews, she is speaking from her expertise as a health care provider and not on behalf of ABM or any of her other professional affiliations.

Can you explain to us how the new vaccine works? How are the mRNA COVID vaccines different from other vaccines, such as the flu vaccine?

There is “little biological plausibility that the vaccine will cause harm [to the] breastfeeding child,” according to the recent statement from the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine. Can you explain why this is?

What sort of questions should a family consider asking their care provider when assessing the risks and benefits of receiving the COVID vaccine while breastfeeding or chestfeeding?