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Another Good Reason to Breastfeed
OK Gentlemen, you are excused for today. No hard feelings.
Now, for those of you Ladies with any interest in conceiving babies any time soon, here’s another good reason to choose breastfeeding:
New research shows that lactation lowers your risk of metabolic syndrome and heart disease, 
AND the longer you breastfeed, lower the incidence of cardiovascular risk — even years after delivery. This is true whether or not the mother had gestational diabetes.
Researchers got this data, presented at the annual ADA Conference last week, by following 1,390 women in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study, in some cases for up to 15 or 20 years.
If I got the scientists right, they were actually looking for long-term effects of gestational diabetes, but instead stumbled upon the first-ever proof that breastfeeding “may have persistent favorable effects on cardiometabolic health that are independent of weight gain and lifestyle.”
I think this is BIG, because if you’re anywhere around my age (yeah, you know), you will remember that our mothers were scolded and cajoled into bottle-feeding their babies with formula. Who would do something so barbaric as feeding a baby from the breast?! (male doctor bias?) Which means that not only did a whole generation of us babies miss out on the protective health benefits of breast milk, but we now discover that a whole generation of mothers missed out on the heart-health benefits of lactation. Ugh.
Meanwhile, for me personally, this is happy news: I breastfed three of ‘em!
Explore posts in the same categories: D-News Examined, Diabetes Essentials
This is good news, as I’m planning to breastfeed my future kids. For many reasons, but this is certainly one of them.
Oddly enough, though: I’m one of three children and I am the only type 1 diabetic. I was the only one who was breastfed, too.
There I go, breaking the mold again.
Posted by: Kerri. | June 10th, 2009 at 7:11 amI breast fed my second child for a little over a year so good news for me!
I learned a lot about being a Type 1 diabetic and breast feeding from Nicole Johnson at a chat that Gina Capone hosted. There are some things to be careful about too (like making sure your blood sugar isn’t high during nursing) but all in all… this is good to hear, for both baby and mommy!
Posted by: Windy | June 10th, 2009 at 9:15 amI wonder if the results apply to exclusive pumpers? Any idea?
Posted by: Lyrehca | June 10th, 2009 at 5:52 pmBreastfeeding is unquestionably best for babies but I find it absolutely disgusting. I cannot stand it when women breastfeed around other people. I could not bring myself to do it, but since I’m adopting my children (the last thing I want is a type 1 diabetic child) I will thankfully bypass the whole issue.
Posted by: Lauren K | June 10th, 2009 at 9:09 pmme and my girlfriend have recently had a baby. She found it very stressfull to brest feed so has opted not to do it now. There are many pluses for breast feeding, including the one in your post. Great post by the way.
Posted by: Steve | June 13th, 2009 at 8:03 pm