Breastfeeding for more than 6 months associated with smaller maternal waist circumference

New Rochelle, NY, December 14, 2018–Breastfeeding for more than 6 months was found to be independently associated with smaller waist circumference in the decade after delivery among women in the POUCHmoms Study. Pregnancy contributes to an accumulation of abdominal adiposity, which is an indicator of cardiometabolic dysfunction in later life. The complete findings regarding the relationship between breastfeeding duration and maternal central adiposity are reported in an article published in Journal of Women’s Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. Click here to read the full-text article free on the Journal of Women’s Health website until January 14, 2019.

A total of 678 women from the Pregnancy Outcomes and Community Health (POUCH) cohort participated in the POUCHmoms Study 7-15 years after delivery. The researchers assessed the relationship between waist circumference measured at follow-up and self-reported history of breastfeeding duration. Propensity score approaches were incorporated into the study to account for systematic differences between women who did and did not breastfeed. The article, entitled “Breastfeeding Greater than Six Months is Associated with Smaller Maternal Waist Circumference Up to One Decade After Delivery” is co-authored by Gabrielle G. Snyder, MPH and colleagues from the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) and the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University (East Lansing).

“This study provides important new information about the potential benefits of breastfeeding for more than 6 months for maternal health, specifically less central adiposity as measured by waist circumference,” states Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Women’s Health and Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women’s Health, Richmond, VA. “The novel use of propensity score methods enabled the researchers to minimize the possibility of bias in the likelihood of breastfeeding due to overall healthier lifestyles. Additional analyses that consider lifetime duration of breastfeeding are proposed in order to advance understanding of the cumulative effect of breastfeeding on maternal central adiposity.”

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Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01-HL103825. The parent POUCH Study was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute of Nursing Research (R01 HD034543). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Journal of Women’s Health, published monthly, is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for or are more prevalent among women, as well as diseases that present differently in women. Led by Editor-in-Chief Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women’s Health, Richmond, VA, and President of the Academy of Women’s Health, the Journal covers the latest advances and clinical applications of new diagnostic procedures and therapeutic protocols for the prevention and management of women’s healthcare issues. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Women’s Health website. Journal of Women’s Health is the official journal of the Academy of Women’s Health and the Society for Women’s Health Research.

Academy of Women’s Health is an interdisciplinary, international association of physicians, nurses, and other health professionals who work across the broad field of women’s health, providing its members with up-to-date advances and options in clinical care that will enable the best outcomes for their women patients. The Academy’s focus includes the dissemination of translational research and evidence-based practices for disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of women across the lifespan.

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including LGBT Health, Transgender Health, Population Health Management, and Breastfeeding Medicine. Its biotechnology trade magazine, GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News), was the first in its field and is today the industry’s most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm’s 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.