Can a mother with Hepatitis C breastfeed?

Hepatitis C is a relatively common infectious disease that can be spread to other people through mother-to-child transmission, sexual transmission, etc. in daily life. So, as a mother who is a carrier of hepatitis C virus, can I breastfeed my baby?

Hepatitis C virus infection (HCV) is a type of hepatitis virus transmitted through the blood and is the main cause of intravenous hepatitis. Patients with hepatitis C infection are prone to develop chronic hepatitis and are closely related to the occurrence of cirrhosis and primary liver cancer. Therefore, it poses a great threat to human health. At present, it is believed that HCV has been confirmed to be transmitted through blood, as well as parenteral transmission methods such as close contact in daily life, mother-to-child transmission, sexual transmission, and transplant transmission.

Therefore, hepatitis C is likely to be transmitted from mother to child, causing the baby to also get hepatitis C. Therefore, during pregnancy, hepatitis C virus carriers should prevent the spread of hepatitis C to their children. Can a hepatitis C virus carrier breastfeed her baby?

Mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis C can be divided into prenatal (intrauterine) infection transmission, infection transmission during delivery, and transmission after birth. The latter mainly refers to breastfeeding transmission. Existing references report that HCV RNA can be detected in breast milk, and it is possible for HCV to be transmitted through breastfeeding.

Because there is still little data on the transmission of HCV through breast milk, further and in-depth research in this area is needed to clarify the role of breast milk in the transmission of HCV from mother to child. Despite this, the only available data have confirmed the possibility of HCV breast milk transmission, and there is currently no effective immunity against hepatitis C. Therefore, we recommend that mothers with hepatitis C do not exclusively breastfeed their children.

Finally, hepatitis C patients should pay attention to eating a light and easy-to-digest diet. The most effective way to prevent hepatitis C is to actively seek treatment when you are informed that you are infected with the hepatitis B virus, not giving the disease a chance to become serious, and nip the virus in the bud.