Breastfeeding could lower women’s heart attack and stroke risk. Here’s why

Parents already know that breastfeeding provides babies with handfuls of health benefits, but what about moms?

New research suggests that breastfeeding may even reduce a woman’s risk of having a heart attack or stroke later on in life.

In a new study published in the American Heart Association’s journal, scientists say that moms reap long-term benefits from breastfeeding, too.

While the medical community has already pointed out short-term boosts, such as weight loss, lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, they say that breastfeeding even protects against encountering heart disease or stroke.

The study pinpoints the benefits as a 10 per cent lower risk.

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“Although we cannot establish the causal effects, the health benefits to the mother from breastfeeding may be explained by a faster ‘reset’ of the mother’s metabolism after pregnancy. Pregnancy changes a woman’s metabolism dramatically as she stores fat to provide the energy necessary for her baby’s growth and for breastfeeding once the baby is born. Breastfeeding could eliminate the stored fat faster and more completely,” Dr. Sanne Peters, the study’s co-author, said in a statement.

“The findings should encourage more widespread breastfeeding for the benefit of the mother as well as the child,” Dr. Zhengming Chen, the study’s senior author, said.

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Chen and his team out of the University of Oxford and Peking University, looked at the health records of nearly 290,000 Chinese women who took part in the country’s Kadoorie Biobank study. The women were 51-years-old on average and provided detailed information about their reproductive history along with other parts of their health and lifestyle.

Nearly all of the women were moms and none had heart disease when they joined the study. By the end of the study’s eight-year time span, 16,671 had heart disease, including heart attacks, while another 23,983 had a stroke.

Turns out, moms who breastfed their babies had a nine per cent lower risk of heart disease and an eight per cent lower risk of stroke compared to their peers who didn’t breastfeed.

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If moms breastfed each of their babies for two years or more, heart disease risk was 18 per cent lower and stroke risk was 17 per cent lower compared to their peers who stuck to formula.

These were the outcomes even after the researchers factored in a range of issues, such as smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes and exercise habits.

The scientists suggest that moms who breastfed may have picked up on other healthy habits that lowered their risk of heart disease.

They pointed to a caveat in their study, too: it was based on observational data, relying on information doled out by the moms and their memories about breastfeeding. They say their findings don’t prove cause and effect and that more studies need to be conducted to confirm their results.

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For babies, the benefits are clear, though.

There is “no doubt” that breast milk is most ideal for newborn babies, Dr. Catherine Pound told Global News.

Pound is a pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and member of the Canadian Pediatric Society’s nutrition committee.

Across the board, medical literature has pointed to the benefits of breastfeeding: it decreases rates of hospitalizations for infection for baby, decreases risk of gastrointestinal illnesses and ear infections for baby, improves neuro-developmental outcomes and decreases risk of obesity later on in life, for starters.

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In moms, it lowers the risk of ovarian cancer and, if the process is smooth, protects against postpartum depression.

But for some women, they could have medical conditions that bar them from breastfeeding, their babies could have complications that prohibit breastfeeding, they could have trouble latching on, or moms could have an inadequate milk supply.

Pound admits she is a strong supporter of breast milk for babies, but she emphasizes that if moms can’t provide exclusive breastfeeding, it’s okay.

“There’s no shame and no guilt associated with formula feeding. There are other ways to take care of your baby,” she said.

The Canadian Pediatric Society to the World Health Organization, recommend exclusively providing breast milk for the first six months of life for babies.

The latest study was published Wednesday afternoon in the American Heart Association’s Rapid Access Journal Report.

carmen.chai@globalnews.ca
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