Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, MD, MS

Cardiovascular mortality was doubled in mothers who never breast-fed compared with those who did.

Recent findings suggest that curtailed lactation can raise maternal risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, visceral adiposity, hyperlipidemia, and cardiovascular disease (CVD). To assess whether lifetime duration of breast-feeding predicts maternal cardiovascular mortality, investigators analyzed data from a Norwegian population-based prospective cohort study including 21,889 women (age range, 30–85). Linkage to the national Cause of Death Registry indicated that, after median follow-up of 14.5 years, 1246 women died from CVD.

Among parous women younger than 65 at study entry, those who never breast-fed had more than twice the risk for dying from CVD as those who ever breast-fed. Among parous women aged 45 to 64 at enrollment, those who never nursed were 3 times as likely to die from CVD compared with ever-nursing mothers. Adjusting for age, parity, education, marital status, and traditional risk factors for CVD (e.g., smoking, obesity, diabetes) did little to attenuate this excess mortality among nonbreast-feeding mothers.

Citation(s):

Natland Fagerhaug T et al. A prospective population-based cohort study of lactation and cardiovascular disease mortality: The HUNT study. BMC Public Health 2013 Nov 13; 13:1070.