Breast-Feeding Is Good for the Mother, and Not Just the Baby

I’m completely skeptical of the authors intent here as well. Women are constantly shamed into breastfeeding when the evidence for benefits is scant and/or the causal link unclear, especially after the first few weeks or months of an infants life (assuming we are talking about the first world with clean water). Yes formulas companies have agendas, but these days the lactavists are just as loud and clear with info presented in a biased fashion. The info in this article is well known and old, not newsworthy. Perhaps there are poor and disenfranchised mothers in this country that need this info, but I bet they need a lot of other balanced health info too and have common sense enough to weigh the info they are given IF given complete info, not a sound byte like this article.

I’m an adoptive mom. I understand the health benefits, but every time I see an article like this, it hurts. I worry for my children. And for myself. Please stop.

Was there control for weight, fitness level, smoking/drinking status, diet? The better study would be to look at groups of sisters. The flaws of epidemiological studies are well known.

I think the comment about breasts growing up and getting a job was humerous while relaying the changes and work the breasts do to feed a baby.

The language around “breasts growing up and getting a job” is VERY regrettable! My kids are both in their 20s, I knew breast feeding would decrease chances of breast cancer. That info was particularly important to me as my Mom had a radical mastectomy in 1966. I worked from home, had my kids 4 years apart and breast fed for almost 10 years! My kids are college graduates, happy healthy and successful adults. I decreased my cancer likely hood SIGNIFICANTLY. I know much of this is possible because of privledge/advantages of being white middle class college educated.

is it just breastfeeding? what about women who pump but don't breastfeed?

So is it women who give birth but don't breastfeed who are at risk? What about women like me who have never been pregnant?

Do what you think is best for you and your child. My MIL convinced me to keep trying with my first one. Baby and I did not know how this was supposed to work, and boy was it painful. I kept trying and I ended up breastfeeding him for 24 months. It was convenient. No getting up at night to warm up formula, etc. I had the luxury to have a private room for pumping at work, which made it easy. There is no way of knowing how beneficial this was for me or my kids. It just felt right and good. Nobody went to an Ivy school and i don’t think they will become rocket scientist. Just use common sense!

There is something about the vocabulary used to anthropomorphize breasts and suggest that they grow up and get a job which I find repulsive, even as the health intent of the author may be laudable. This is supposed to be an article based on scientific evidence of health benefit. The metaphor and aggressive hostility toward "unemployed, immature" breasts who haven't gotten a job seems highly peculiar. Given that workplaces rarely are well-suited to continued breast-feeding, advocates for maximum adoption of breast-feeding ought to change the social and physical environment in which women have to make this decision, rather than implying that mothers who make a choice for shorter nursing periods are to be faulted for not "doing their jobs." The rhetoric here is obnoxious. The medical studies involved are worthy of reporting but just it with more focus on accuracy and respect for women who have to make these choices.

This author is grossly ignorant. Where has she been all these years? Obviously she is unaware of La Leche League, founded in the early 1960s as a self-help group to support and educate women who wished to breast feed and, in many cases, were also interested in what was then called “natural childbirth.” Among other things, we provided information about OBs and pediatricians who were knowledgeable about lactation and child∫Irth, who were willing to challenge the misinformation they had been taught in MED school and learn from knowledgeable women. Among these stalwart MDs was Alan Gutmacher, then Medical Director of Planned Parenthood, and author of the best selling book on pregnancy and childbirth. He had a first rate description of how a woman who needed to leave a bottle of her own milk for a baby sitter, could hand express milk without having to rely on breast pumps, which are often painful to use.

When I have my baby, I was told NOT to breastfeed more than three months? Why? Because breast cancer increased with longer you breastfeed. I wonder, what corporations were behind such notion! And, no, it's not a "conspiracy theory." Just see all the propaganda (yes propaganda, advertisements is to bland a notion) that are behind everywhere in Latin America to sell the for profit formulas. Breastfeeding, besides all the pros, makes your uterus contract and go to its "normal" size with each breast feeding, you stop menstruating (sigh!) and the emotional/affective relationship you establish with your baby is formidable! True too: my life became much more frugal (no metaphor involved!) since I had to quit my job in order to breastfeed my baby.

I'm going out on a limb to challenge the intent of this article. This is where a journalist, a non-health provider, reports findings to make a point. Yes, I breast fed both of my children. I breastfed them for *only* 11 and 10 months, respectively. They're teenagers now, thriving like crazy. Yet I still read this information that somehow there's a difference 20-30 years from now whether I will develop breast cancer. I am a physician with a background in biostatistics. Yes, these statistical associations exist, and they are interesting to publish, because they are newsworthy. But these associations are not necessarily causal, which is the message that gets communicated in this article, and others like it. There are numbers, and then there is common sense. If a mother breastfeeds for 2 months, 6 months, 6 years, I don't think this will predict whether that child will go to an Ivy League school, go to jail, or get a high SAT. Benefitting the mother make sense, but I think that is also stretching it. There are too many other important factors playing out here. Finally, with all of the benefits of breastfeeding, I can't help feeling like this information was intended to empower women. Yes, I think breastfeeding is healthy, and all mothers should at least try. But this is not empowering women. This is yet another way to advertise to women how to be perfect, and then make us feel like utter failures. So please stop advertising breastfeeding like makeup!!

I appreciate that many women have difficulties breastfeeding and continuing that over a prolonged period, especially if work requires pumping. And yet I also worry that by stressing the difficulties, we may discourage women because breastfeeding can also be really simple, natural, and wonderful. I was fortunate to have a really positive experience with breast feeding, and did so for 2.5 years with my child. I found it much easier than dealing with bottles and formula. And yes, I pumped when at work. Traveling was a breeze. We were a self-contained, self-regulating system. Again, I was lucky and I fully realize that not everyone is so fortunate. But I hope that as new mothers think about making this decision, they are not scared away from trying, and keep in mind that it can be such a beautiful and natural process and a great way of enhancing mother-child attachment.

Excellent article. Breastfeeding is not easy but is very gratifying. Taking a breastfeeding class before a woman has her baby is very helpful. Delivering at a hospital that is baby friendly is highly recommended, as these hospitals are committed to supporting moms. Knowing where you will go for support after your baby is born is critical to a mom's success. (La Leche League and Lactation Consultants) I have known for many years that breastfeeding reduces risk of breast and ovarian cancer. This is just one of the reasons I chose to breastfeed my children long term. I was lucky in that I had a dedicated place to pump at work and I had colleagues that were having babies around the same time as I did. They gave me advice. I also had access to a lactation consultant, who helped me immensely. This article is intended to educate and inform mothers and mothers to be. It is based on science and scientific studies. It is not intended to make mothers feel guilty. Reducing breast cancer is important to all women and to all families everywhere. If you know a mother who is breastfeeding, support her decision, and support her in any way you can. If you are reading this, and you are a breastfeeding mom---you are providing an amazing gift to your baby! You are doing a great job!

Great article, I breastfed my first for 2.5 years and my second for 20 months, he weaned himself this past week probably due to my pregnancy. I plan to breastfeed the 3rd one as long as I can. I feel lucky to live in California where we have 6 weeks of paid family leave, although it pales in comparison to other countries. Pumping at work was one of the hardest things, even though I was fortunate to have my own office. The other thing that helped was putting my baby in a nearby Breast feeding friendly daycare where I was able to spend my lunch hour nursing him. Kudos to anyone who breastfeeds, it is tough to keep up when you have to be separated from your child.

I breastfed my only child for 13 months. But I was lucky enough to be a stay-at-home mother. If I had been working full-time, leaving my baby in daycare at 6 weeks and faced with the difficulty of trying to pump (enough, as I would likely not, due to stress) at work, I undoubtedly would not have even attempted it or would soon have dropped it. (Both my working sisters did.) We have virtually ZERO respect for motherhood, and by extension, the welfare of children, in this country. It's all about getting us all contributing to the GNP; and not at all about what is "best" for us as human beings.

What other social and economic factors were controlled for in this study? Breast-feeding mothers tend to be white, more highly educated, and more affluent. All things that are associated with better health habits in general. I tend to think this is bad science.

Breast is best, of that there is (or should be) no question. HOWEVER, If a Mother is unable, has difficulties or just cannot cope because of work pressures or lifestyle choices...it is out of her control or her descision and she should never be judged, castigated or lacking or less for it. Never. That said, there should be no argument from any that society should do all in its power to encourage safe, natural breastfeeding and ensure that the oportunity to breastfeed a baby is made easier, supported at all levels of Society , in and by the workplace as well as in the U.S endorsed by establishing paid maternity leave for all the obvious reasons why for all Mothers to be. More needs to be done, more needs to be said and more support needs to be shown and given. There is no excuse for not doing so...none that is valid and as important as ensuring that we make breastfeeding as easy and acceptable as it can be.

I recently had a mammogram and was surprised that while the health history questionnaire asked how many pregnancies I'd had, and my age at menarche and menopause, it did not ask whether I'd breastfed my children and if so, how long. If these questions are designed to help researchers compile statistics about associations between breast cancer and personal health history, it's omitted a possible important correlation from the get-go.

The reality is, American society isn't set up to promote women breastfeeding. This is a conscious choice we, as Americans, make to disadvantage both our babies and our women to the benefit of employers and the rich. We could make a different choice. * Short or non-existent maternity leave * Poor nutrition even in the middle class * Inflexible employers and schedules * Lack of assistance and support from "lactation consultants" * Little to no empathy (It's your problem) * The expense of pumping (and how it provides negative feedback to the body unlike frequent nursing which promotes milk production) For middle class white women with half decent home and work support, it's difficult enough, if you are poor and working a marginal job, it can be absolutely impossible. There is no "choice" involved. Every post here is from women who "sadly chose" to stop nursing because they "had problems." Yet almost every problem was likely caused by lack of support from one direction or another, lack of knowledge, some issue or another--might have been solved--with the right intervention, if the will to solve it existed. We do not have the will to solve the problems of women and babies. Employers and the rich are FAR TOO IMPORTANT. Women and babies, eh. Not so much.

OK, so, breastfeeding can lower your breast cancer risk, but *stopping* breastfeeding too quickly can increase it? Is *that* message getting out, so that women understand the risk that once they start, if there are difficulties (which there so often are), they wil need to wean slowly to protect themselves? Do healcare providers (or this article) cover THAT in detail, too, or is that just glossed over for the sunnier “breastfeeding is good for you!” message?? Women’s healthcare communication is woefully, woefully inadequate, still. Even almost 50 years since feminist pushes to ensure women are well informed about their own healthcare.

I breastfed all three children, but have developed metastatic (stage IV) breast cancer. The problem may (as current theory runs) have something to do with having had children late in life--all three were born when I was over forty. Who knows? I wish breastfeeding had been an absolute protection. http://www.thecriticalmom.blogspot.com

Sure it’s ideal and even natural, but breastfeeding is rarely easy from the get-go. For me it was very challenging initially. Being a stay at home mom, getting support from a lactation consultant and family friends, and with the desire to breastfeed, I was humbled by how long it took my baby and I to get into our rhythm and for me to feel confident- about six weeks. If mothers are supposed to breastfeed their babies, then there needs to be so much more support available to them, which includes longer maternity leaves for working mothers. The maternal institution deserves far more respect than it currently receives in this country - regardless of how you nourish your child.

Great, one more thing to worry about if you can't breastfeed.

Perhaps the difference is immaterial, but it would be interesting to see if those benefit differ for women who exclusively breast feed, vs a combination of breast feeding and pumping, vs exclusively pumping milk. I am guess that in the USA, with our woefully short maternity leave, most mothers fall into the second category.

The benefits for maternal health (and long term infant health) are overstated. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality published an Evidence Summary this summer that found bias and cofounding in the vast majority of studies, rating the evidence weak or insufficient, with the exception of ovarian cancer reduction, which was moderate. In cohort and observational studies, correlation does not imply causation. We use this information to make mothers feel guilty if their goals change, particularly if they are not able to exclusively breastfeed or need to go back to work. Supplementing with formula and introducing solids before six months to reduce food allergies are reemerging as good care. Each mother/baby dyad has different needs.

I was going to breastfeed my son for nine months, but he chose eighteen months. I guess I should thank him.

Yes, education is needed, but access to support and clinical resources is crucial too. A vast majority of new parents choose to breastfeed as can be seen through US breastfeeding initiation rates, but our numbers drop sharply after that. Many new mothers face significant barriers to meeting their own breastfeeding goals. Lack of parental leave, lack of access to a proper pump, lack of time at work to pump, medical staff who lack education in lactation management leading to no clinical support for challenges and sometimes uninformed advice that unintentionally sabotages breastfeeding are just a few of the challenges new parents face. How to feed their baby is a decision that belongs 100% to every person who gives birth, but as long as families face systemic barriers to breastfeeding success, breastfeeding as a “choice” remains an illusion.