Coping mechanisms during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown in metropolitan Johannesburg, South Africa: A qualitative study.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused prolonged stress on numerous fronts. While the acute health impacts of psychosocial stress due to the pandemic are well-documented, less is known about the resources and mechanisms utilized to cope in response to stresses during the pandemic and lockdown.

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify and describe the coping mechanisms adults utilized in response to the stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic during the 2020 South African lockdown.

Discrepancies in infant feeding recommendations between grandmothers and healthcare providers in rural Mexico.

Background: Infant feeding practices are rapidly changing within rural areas in Mexico, including indigenous communities. The aim of this study was to compare infant feeding recommendations between grandmothers and healthcare providers, to better understand the factors that may influence these practices within these communities. This study builds on research that recognizes the legacy of colonization as an ongoing process that impacts the lives of people through many pathways, including the substandard healthcare systems available to them.

Human milk lactoferrin variation in relation to maternal inflammation and iron deficiency in northern Kenya.

Background: Milk lactoferrin is a multi-functional, iron-binding glycoprotein with immunomodulatory effects, protecting infants against infectious diseases.

Aims: This study explored how maternal inflammation/infection and iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) might influence human milk lactoferrin. Lactoferrin might be elevated with maternal inflammation resulting from infectious disease processes.

Human milk sIgA antibody in relation to maternal nutrition and infant vulnerability in northern Kenya.

Background: The maternal buffering hypothesis posits that human lactation biology can buffer milk against the mild-to-moderate malnutrition that occurred routinely in evolutionary history through the mobilization of maternal body reserves. This perspective may provide insights for understanding human milk immune content variation, such as milk sIgA, which protects infants' intestines from microbial colonization and prevents diarrheal disease.

Objective: To investigate how maternal delivery of sIgA to milk may vary in a way that can buffer milk against maternal malnutrition, while taking into consideration infants' varying needs for immune protection across age or by sex.

Variation in breast milk macronutrient contents by maternal anemia and hemoglobin concentration in northern Kenya.

Objectives: This study explored differing levels of macronutrients in breast milk in relation to maternal anemia and hemoglobin.

Methods: Archived milk specimens and data from a cross-sectional sample of 208 breastfeeding mothers in northern Kenya, originally collected in 2006, were analyzed; data included milk fat, maternal hemoglobin concentration, and anemia status (anemia defined as hemoglobin <12 g/dL). Total protein and lactose were measured and energy was calculated.

Buffered or impaired: Maternal anemia, inflammation and breast milk macronutrients in northern Kenya.

Background: Maternal anemia has adverse consequences for the mother-infant dyad. To evaluate whether and how milk nutrient content may change in ways that could "buffer" infants against the conditions underlying maternal anemia, this study assessed associations between milk macronutrients and maternal iron-deficiency anemia (IDA), non-iron-deficiency anemia (NIDA), and inflammation.

Methods: A secondary analysis of cross-sectional data and milk from northern Kenya was conducted (n = 204).