Breast-Feeding Tied to Smaller Waist Size in Mother

Heading into two years of breastfeeding with a relentless toddler. Sure wish my waistline knew about this

Hmmm my mother raised 4 children, breast fed all until the milk ran dry. She really didn’t seem to benefit any thin waist thing. This sounds like bunch of bolognese to me

I am pro-breastfeeding and am still breastfeeding my toddler, but I don’t understand why there seem to be endless studies and articles about breastfeeding. It seems really out-of-proportion to do this constant breastfeeding research and reporting when there are so many other pressing human health issues. It almost seems obsessive to me.

I get a little tired of the way the comments (and the headlines, the media, the marketing) must tip-toe around ONLY the feelings of mothers who do NOT breastfeed. It's as if we are not allowed to celebrate or accept the positive feelings of moms who choose to breastfeed and successfully do so, with positive outcomes and the warm and joyful maternal feeling that often comes with nursing. This is nonsense. There is so much fear about adding more pressure and guilt to women about their choices that we are forgetting about celebrating the victories and wonders that can also exist with women's choices, whether we like them or not. The fact that people are complaining about this article = people saying "Please suppress the truth, because facts will encourage people to feel bad about themselves. NY Times, only publish news that I like to read. Thanks."

Sometimes breastfeeding is easy, cheap, and rewarding. Maybe this article is a (not very newsworthy) scientific finding and not an attack on those who had a negative breastfeeding experience.

If a baby eats 25 oz of milk per day, and each oz contains 20 calories, is anyone surprised that pushing out 500 calories per day for 6 months would lead a mother to be a bit thinner and healthier?

Breastfeeding is a personal choice and should not be motivated by how thin a mother wants to be after giving birth. Headlines like this irritate me. It seems like you are trying to coax women to breastfeed by dangling the "carrot" of skinny, as though women are so shallow that that's what will motivate us to do it, as if that is a good reason to breastfeed. The fact is that breastfeeding is difficult in the best of situations. In my case it was an incredible strain mentally, physically, and emotionally during a time when I was in need of the greatest amount of rest during recovery from giving birth. It strained my relationship with my husband (because feeding the child was basically my job) and coupled with my depression contributed to the most intense suicidal feelings of my life. I'm used to casual thoughts of death but this was an unbearable level of pain. My perception is I barely survived. Just a few months ago I heard the sound of our neighbors pool pump from my window and the electric motor sounded just like my breast pump did. I was immediately thrown back into those early months of my son's life, and all the dark feelings that I experienced then overwhelmed me again. I love my son but am grateful that time of my life is over, a year later. My point is there are a lot of good reasons to breastfeed. There can also be good reasons NOT to. The desire to lose a few inches is not a good one and trivializes the decision itself.

Critical commenters are making a lot of assumptions about the arguments (not) made in this article. Establishing additional (health, not cosmetic) benefits of breastfeeding doesn't equal more pressure on women. A more breastfeeding-friendly society would take changes by policymakers, employers, families and communities.

There is already so much pressure for women to breastfeed and so much guilt when it doesn't go according to plan...are we really adding cosmetic beauty to the mix now? It is really hard being a mother of a newborn and it is really hard to breastfeed, especially if you have to go back to work within 2-3 months of delivery. Trying to tell women that they will look better if they are the perfect mother on top of all the other pressure is completely over the top, like time-traveling to the 1950s. Let's stop with the guilt and try supporting families to be the best parents they can be given the set of circumstances they are navigating.

Were those who fed longer than six months, smokers?

not for me. I breastfed my last child for 3 years. she is 16 now and I never stopped looking pregnant after having her, even at a healthy BMI I get offered seats on buses!

unfortunate that not more than a decade

I was only able to breastfeed my first for a short period of time due to low milk supply and was back to my pre-pregnancy weight within a month of giving birth. Right now I’m 7 months into exclusively breastfeeding my second and am still 20 pounds over the weight I’ve always been except for when pregnant. More importantly neither of my kids have had any allergies, ear infections, asthma, serious illness, attachment issues, etc. Both are the opposite of obese and developmentally advanced. The only difference is that one of them had to be exposed to and forced to be separated from a mother who had anxiety over her inability to produce enough breastmilk. Articles like this are part of the problem.

My concern is the added pressure on women that this type of study promotes. Not all women have the choice to breastfeed for longer than 6 months. Why not split the groups into those who ‘choose’ or those who ‘choose not’ to breastfeed for greater than six months? I think about the NICU babies that are separated from their moms. Those moms are under tremendous pressure to establish supply while understandably worrying about the health of their baby. Also, I understand the clinical reasons for using waist circumference as a measure of CV risk. But, come on, these headlines undoubtedly add more pressure on women to meet some unrealistic physical-appearance standard. There must be a better way to encourage better maternal decision-making without placing tremendous pressure on the moms we love so dearly.

I remember when my second daughter was 5 months old I was sewing a skirt for myself. I had measured my waist in order to correctly place the buttons. Of course, with two young children, it took me a few weeks to finish the skirt, at which time she was 6 months old. To my surprise, my waist was 2 inches smaller when the skirt was done, necessitating minor alterations, which I was more than happy to do! Loved breastfeeding!