Got milk? And covid? COVID-19 human milk studies enrolling participants

In early November, some of my big pandemic worries came true. My husband contracted COVID-19, and my infant daughter and I became sick shortly thereafter. There were so many unknowns with covid, but we knew that we felt ill. I was the sickest I’d ever been. And while the baby had the lightest case of the three of us, it was a terrifying few weeks just in worrying for her.

I needed a silver lining. And thankfully for me, being a breastfeeding mom meant that there were some bright sides of a dark cloud that I could get excited about. First, I got excited about donating human milk with covid antigens to babies in my area who got the disease. Second, I got excited about participating in research studies on covid antigens in human milk.

If you are lactating and have recently been diagnosed with COVID-19, you may be eligible to participate in these studies.

The University of Washington is conducting a study that includes human milk samples if you live in Washington or Idaho and a phone interview if you do not (Seattle Mother-Infant COVID-19 Study). You can read more about the study here. 
If you are interested in participating, contact Melanie Martin at seattlemomcovid19@gmail.com. 

Also, the University of Idaho and Washington State University are looking for moms who have tested positive in the past week and who are feeding their babies formula or human milk. If you are interested in participating, see https://wsu.edu/covid-19-infant-feeding/ for more information. 

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is conducting a couple of studies on human milk. You can read about some of the preliminary results here and an article about them here. If you are interested in participating, contact Rebecca Powell at rebecca.powell@mssm.edu.

The University of Rochester is conducting a study on human milk and other samples (CALM: Covid-19 and Lactating Mothers). If you are interested in participating, contact Rita Ferri at Rita_Ferri@URMC.Rochester.edu.

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I last updated this list November 2020. If you know of any additional studies I can include here, please let me know at the Contact form above.