Photo provided by La Leche League-China shows mothers breastfeeding their children. (Xinhua/La Leche League-China)
Breastfeeding may have one more benefit for mothers, with a study linking it to a smaller waistline in the decade after giving birth.
The study published recently in Journal of Women's Health showed that the adjusted mean waist circumference of women who reported breastfeeding for more than six months was 3.5 centimeters smaller than those who breastfed for less than six months.
A total of 678 women participated in the study seven to 15 years after delivery. The researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and Michigan State University assessed the relationship between waist circumference measured at follow-up and self-reported history of breastfeeding duration.
The results were adjusted for age, race and ethnicity, parity and pregnancy complications, socioeconomic status and healthy lifestyle factors. Postpartum milk production for breastfeeding requires mothers to expend nearly 500 additional kilocalories per day, according to the study.
The waistline standing for the central adiposity is a better predictor of long-term cardiovascular disease risk than Body Mass Index (BMI) alone, according to the researchers.
Breastfeeding duration may be important to consider when studying long-term maternal cardiovascular and metabolic health, they said.
