The Healthy Blogger

Benefits of breastfeeding

New mothers have always been encouraged to try breastfeeding.  Among the many traditional benefits cited for breastfeeding is the ability to quickly shed that excess weight from pregnancy.  Of course, it is believed that all women are vain enough to induce them to lose weight by breastfeeding.  I breastfed my babies, but it was not because of the weight loss issue.  The most I ever weighed during pregnancy was 116 lbs. so it was not a big issue.  Breastfeeding was easy and enjoyable.  It created a bond that I feel could not have been accomplished by other means.  I loved it and wished I could have done it longer.  My first one I breastfed until she was eleven months, but the second was for only six months due to my developing mastitis.  Of course, I had to supplement during both.

Besides the emotional and psychological benefits of breastfeeding, there are numerous health benefits.  Breast milk is supposed to contain natural antibodies to protect babies from infections.  In addition, it is purported to protect babies from obesity (a major issue these days and this finding may change), diabetes, and asthma.  Some claim that breastfed babies are smarter but intelligence is hard to measure.  For women, breastfeeding produces extra hormones that protect against breast and ovarian cancer as well as osteoporosis.  Now research shows that breastfeeding may protect against heart disease and strokes.

The research, done by the University of Pittsburgh was based on surveys of 140,000 postmenopausal women.  It shows that the benefits of breastfeeding lasted even up to 35 years out from the last episode of breastfeeding.  Of course, there is a graduated level of benefit, with those breastfeeding for at least a year showing the highest advantage, but even one month of breastfeeding conferred some benefits.  Despite these wonderful findings, one needs to be careful how to interpret the data.  Perhaps there are other underlying factors that play a role.  After all, a 35-year lapse opens up many possibilities.  What about the women who breastfed and died?  There are no statistics on them.  Perhaps the next step should be a prospective study of women who breastfeed and those who do not.  They should be followed forward in time to see what they die of and when.

Despite the weaknesses in the study, there are the other benefits of breastfeeding to consider.  Those already known should be enough to encourage women to consider breastfeeding.