Abstract
INTRODUTION: To understand the impacts of the pandemic on the donation of breastmilk through an evaluation of the service flow in the hospitals milk bank during the pandemic as well as to verify whether or not parameters such as those of milk donations and conducted tests have varied during the pandemic. BACKGROUND: A cross-sectional epidemiologic study was carried out through the comparison of the service flow and the volume of human milk collected by the milk bank between two periods (before and during the pandemic). The pre-pandemic period comprises the years between 2017 and 2019, whereas the pandemic period considered in this study stretches from March 1st 2020 to December 31st 2021. RESULTS: The number of group appointments during the pandemic suffered a considerable decrease, with an average of 0,2 appointments and a standard deviation (SD) of ± 0,9 in comparison to the pre-pandemic period, during which there was an average of 31,1 appointments with a standard deviation of ± 13,6 (p<0,001). In relation to the volume of milk that was collected, there was significant decrease during the pandemic, with an average of 28,9 liters collected per month and a standard deviation of (DP) ± 11,9 in comparison to the pre-pandemic period, during which there was an average of 59,8 liters per month and a standard deviation of ± 29,2 (p<0,001). CONCLUSION: During the pandemic, there was a substantial decrease of donors and therefore of the volume of milk which was donated to the milk bank.