Is COVID-19 Transmitted Through Human Milk? Implications for Breastfeeding and Human Milk Banking-Study 1c

June 3, 2025 updated by: Deborah O'Connor
This will be a prospective observational study of lactating mothers who are planning to, have scheduled or have received vaccination against SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19 vaccine). Mothers may have delivered at Mount Sinai Hospital or may be from the general public recruited by social media or word of mouth. As the study participants will be lactating mothers, they will not be under the care of the investigators. Due to lack of information, we are unsure of an appropriate sample size but envision we will recruit at least 10 women each immunized with the approved mRNA vaccines (e.g. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines) and in the future at least two other vaccines (e.g. Oxford-AstraZeneca) as they are approved and become available. Milk samples will be analyzed for the presence of antibody to SARS-CoV-2 using the Anti-SARS-CoV-2 ELISA (IgG and IgA). These analyses will be conducted in the Department of Microbiology at Sinai Health following validation of the procedures in human milk.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

78

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • Ontario
      • Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5G 1X5
        • Sinai Health System

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Community sample

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • lactating birthing persons from the general public or Sinai Health System

Exclusion Criteria:

  • None

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Lactating birthing persons delivering at Sinai Health System or from the general population
Other: Vaccinated Pregnant or Lactating persons
vaccinated lactating persons from Sinai Health System or the general public

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Number of participants with and timing of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies in breastmilk post-vaccination
Time Frame: Week prior to first dose of vaccination and until 4 weeks following the second dose of vaccination.
Week prior to first dose of vaccination and until 4 weeks following the second dose of vaccination.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Deborah O'Connor

Collaborators

University of Toronto
Sinai Health System

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

January 17, 2021

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 27, 2022

Study Completion (Actual)

April 27, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 11, 2021

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 11, 2021

First Posted (Actual)

August 13, 2021

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 6, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 3, 2025

Last Verified

June 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 39373-c

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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