Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, MD, MS reviewing Martens PJ et al. Obstet Gynecol 2016 Nov.

In a Canadian study, incident diabetes was less common among both mothers who had breast-fed and their offspring.

Prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) has been rising rapidly in North America, particularly among indigenous (First Nations) people, pointing to the importance of identifying modifiable risk factors. To assess the extent to which breast-feeding affects DM risk, researchers in Canada conducted a retrospective cohort study using administrative data from 334,553 live births in Manitoba between 1987 and 2011.

Overall, 56% of First Nations mothers and 83% of non–First Nations mothers initiated breast-feeding before hospital discharge. Information about maternal body-mass index was unavailable; however, after adjusting for multiple other potential confounders, risk for incident diabetes was lower among both First Nations mothers and non–First Nations mothers who began breast-feeding before hospital discharge than among those who did not breast-feed, regardless of histories of gestational diabetes (3.5% vs. 7.6%; P<0.001). Similarly, infants whose mothers initiated breast-feeding prior to hospital discharge were less likely to develop DM.

CITATION(S):

Martens PJ et al. Breastfeeding initiation associated with reduced incidence of diabetes in mothers and offspring. Obstet Gynecol 2016 Nov; 128:1095.

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