Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on hunger and breastfeeding

Published January 26, 2022, by Carla Bernardo

Photo: William Fortunato / Pexels.

“I worry about losing my life or my kids due to COVID-19 and not having food in the house, because as a breastfeeding mom I have to eat so that I can produce milk”; “I am concerned about going to bed hungry when I have to breastfeed”; “I am worried about my health and wellbeing together with good nutrition since I am breastfeeding”.

These are some of the typical responses from a study investigating whether breastfeeding was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown-associated changes in economic and social circumstances, and to assess the association between breastfeeding, maternal depressive symptoms, maternal hunger, and clinic visits.

“Lockdown-associated hunger may be affecting breastfeeding: Findings from a large SMS survey in South Africa” details the findings and recommendations of the research team and was recently published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Lead author Dr Nazeeia Sayed holds a post-doctoral fellowship from the DSI/NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security (CoE-FS), and is based at the School of Public Health at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). Co-authors are Professor Ronelle Burger (University of Stellenbosch), Abigail Harper (University of the Witwatersrand), and Professor Rina Swart (CoE-FS, UWC).

“We have all heard about the COVID-19 lockdown’s economic impact and the food insecurity it has caused. This study gave us the opportunity to assess how the lockdown may have affected clinic visits, hunger and depressive symptoms in mothers, and if this was related to breastfeeding behaviour in any way,” Dr Sayed explained.

Study and findings

A rapid SMS maternal and child health survey was conducted in South Africa in June 2020, with a follow-up in July of that year. The survey was conducted among pregnant women and mothers in the public health sector in South Africa who were registered with the MomConnect mhealth platform. The platform is estimated to have enrolled more than half of all women attending the public sector antenatal care services.

Using the survey, the research team explored the associations between breastfeeding, maternal depressive symptoms and hunger in the household.

Findings indicate positive correlation between not breastfeeding and not going to the health clinic, and that the odds of hungry mothers breastfeeding were significantly lower. Thus, hunger and not attending a clinic were associated with reduced breastfeeding, which confirms the importance of adequate nutrition, access to healthcare, and other structural barriers to breastfeeding uptake.

No association was found between breastfeeding practice and maternal depressive symptoms in this study.

“We do not have pre-COVID data to compare our study findings to; nevertheless, these findings are sobering and highlight the importance of supporting mothers in our endeavours to improve breastfeeding in our country,” said Sayed.

Recommendations

Based on the findings, the authors recommend a “paradigm shift in efforts to improve breastfeeding”. This includes strengthening of enabling capabilities like health-seeking behaviour and self-efficacy; direct nutrition support of pregnant and breastfeeding women; and highlighting the value of breastfeeding beyond only as an immediate superior nutritional and hygienic feeding method, to include food security and aspects related to non-communicable disease prevention.

“Breastfeeding needs to be protected, promoted and supported more than ever, as this can impact the health of future generations and also offers all infants a fairer, more equal start in life,” the authors noted.

Download the study, “Lockdown-associated hunger may be affecting breastfeeding: Findings from a large SMS survey in South Africa”, here.