The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends maintaining exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of the baby's life and then continuing, until two years or more, with her but supplemented with other nutrients.
These recommendations are due to the multiple benefits they provide to the baby but, according to the research presented at the 67th Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology, breastfeeding could also reduce the risk of heart disease of those women who breastfeed for at least six months.
Benefits of breastfeeding for the mother
As we said before, breastfeeding has multiple benefits for the baby, such as a reduction in the risk of gastrointestinal infections, but also for the mother. Some of them are, according to WHO:
- Reduces the risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
- Prevents type 2 diabetes.
- It considerably lowers cases of postpartum depression.
- Faster weight loss is achieved after delivery.
- A delay in the return of menstruation.
And now, cardiac benefits
To all of the above, we must add the contributions of this new research presented at the 67th Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology. This indicates that women with normal blood pressure during pregnancy and who breastfed their babies for at least six months, had better cardiovascular health indicators in the seven-fifteen years after the sample, compared to women who never breastfed.
"The study adds to the evidence that breastfeeding is important not only for the baby but also for the mother," says Malamo Countouris, a cardiology fellow at the University of Pittsburgh and lead author of the study.
The study was carried out between 1998 and 2004, recruiting a total of 678 pregnant women in more than 52 Michigan clinics, who participated in a health exam seven to fifteen years later. The test asked how long they had maintained breastfeeding and the researchers measured blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides and the diameter and thickness of the carotid artery. These are factors are key to assess the risk of heart disease.
The conclusions of the study were that women who maintained normal blood pressure during pregnancy and breastfed for six months or more had significantly higher levels of HDL, "good" cholesterol, lower triglycerides and healthier carotid artery thickness compared to those who had never breastfed their babies.
Countouris pointed out that one hypothesis is that Breastfeeding increases the production of the hormone oxytocin, which can lower blood pressure.
One of the limitations that the researchers found is that they fully trusted the information provided by the women who participated in the study on their blood pressure or preeclampsia, without contrasting these data.
Nevertheless, these findings suggest that women may reduce your risk of heart disease by breastfeeding for at least six months, obtaining great benefits for your health.
