Baby born to Singaporean mother with COVID-19 antibodies
A pregnant woman in Singapore who contracted COVID-19 during her pregnancy has given birth to a baby with antibodies to the coronavirus. The World Health Organization has confirmed that the coronavirus has not been found in breast milk so far.
Singapore's local newspaper The Straits Times reported on Sunday, November 29 (Azar 9), that a 31-year-old Singaporean woman named Celine Ng-Shin, who contracted COVID-19 during pregnancy, has given birth to a son who has COVID-19 antibodies.
The Singaporean woman had a mild case of COVID-19 in March 2020, during her 10th week of pregnancy, while returning from Europe, and was discharged from the hospital after two weeks of hospitalization.
The woman has now given birth to a son named Aldrin, whose doctors have found no trace of the coronavirus in his body.
The baby's mother said that her own COVID-19 antibodies had disappeared, but her son still had them in his blood. Doctors told her that her son probably received them from her during pregnancy.
Singapore's Straits Times newspaper wrote that her child is likely not the first baby born in the country with COVID-19 antibodies without having contracted the coronavirus.
Six months ago, another Singaporean woman, Natasha Ling, gave birth to a baby with COVID-19 antibodies. Ling contracted the virus in her 36th week of pregnancy.
Chinese doctors have reported that this antibody decreases over time in babies born to women infected with the coronavirus.
A medical study published last month by American doctors also shows that transmission of the virus from mothers to infants is rare.
The World Health Organization says research into the transmission of COVID-19 from a pregnant mother to an unborn baby (fetus) or newborn is still ongoing and there is currently no information on transmission of the coronavirus to infants. But the organization emphasizes that “the virus has not yet been found in amniotic fluid or breast milk samples.”
