NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 25 – Breastfeeding women are less likely to develop heart diseases, suffer stroke or die from cardiovascular diseases than non-breastfeeding women, according to a pregnancy spotlight issue of the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA).
The review which included health records for nearly 1.2 million women, who had the first birth at an average age of 25, analyzed the relationship between breastfeeding and the mother’s individual cardiovascular system.
It revealed that over an average follow-up period of 10 years, women who breastfed at some time in their life were 14 per cent less likely to develop coronary heart diseases, 12 per cent less likely to suffer strokes and 17 per cent less likely to die from a cardiovascular disease.
Women who breastfed for 12 months or longer during their lifetime appeared to be less likely to develop cardiovascular diseases than women who did not breastfeed.
There were also no notable differences in cardiovascular disease risk among women of different ages and a varying number of pregnancies.
The World Health Organization (WHO) links breastfeeding to fewer respiratory infections and a lower risk of death from infectious diseases among breastfed children.
Breastfeeding also has been linked to maternal health benefits, including lower risk for Type 2 diabetes, ovarian cancer and breast cancer.
“Previous studies have investigated the association between breastfeeding and the risk of cardiovascular disease in the mother; however, the findings were inconsistent on the strength of the association and, specifically, the relationship between different duration’s of breastfeeding and cardiovascular disease risk,” said a senior author Peter Willeit, professor of clinical epidemiology at the Medical University of Innsbruck in Innsbruck, Austria.
“Therefore, it was important to systematically review the available literature and mathematically combine all of the evidence on this topic.”
Researchers in the JAHA study reviewed health information from eight studies conducted between 1986 and 2009 in Australia, China, Norway, Japan and the U.S. and one multinational study.
Despite recommendations to breastfeed, only 1 in 4 infants are breastfed for the first six months.
Data by the Centers for Disease Control in US shows black infants are less likely to be breastfed than white infants for any length of time.
Globally, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) carries a disproportionate burden of infant and child deaths, with 55–75 per cent of under-five deaths in SSA attributed to inappropriate breastfeeding practices.
With a 35 per cent prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding, rates in SSA are lower in comparison to other low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) (39 per cent) and only 18 out of 49 African countries are on track to meet the WHO Global Nutrition Targets to increase the rate to 50 per cent by 2025.
“It’s important for women to be aware of the benefits of breastfeeding for their babies’ health and also their own personal health,” Medical University of Innsbruck’s professor Peter Willeit said.
“Moreover, these findings from high-quality studies conducted around the world highlight the need to encourage and support breastfeeding, such as breastfeeding-friendly work environments, and breastfeeding education and programs for families before and after giving birth.”
The JAHA review also showed that the U.S. has the highest maternal death rate among developed countries, and cardiovascular disease as the leading cause, according to the 2021 Call to Action Maternal Health and Saving Mothers policy statement from the American Heart Association.
The statement, which outlines public policies that address the racial and ethnic disparities in maternal health, notes that an estimated 2 out of 3 deaths during pregnancy may be preventable.
“Raising awareness regarding the multifaceted benefits of breastfeeding could be particularly helpful to those mothers who are debating breast vs. bottle feeding,” said Shelley Miyamoto, M.D., Fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA).
“It should be particularly empowering for a mother to know that by breastfeeding she is providing the optimal nutrition for her baby while simultaneously lowering her personal risk of heart disease.”
In Kenya, the Breastfeeding Mothers Bill, 2019, at the first reading stage, seeks to provide for employers obligations’ towards breastfeeding working working mothers in the workplace and provide for baby changing facilities for use by the public.
Kenya is a signatory to treaties that provide for the right of an infant to exclusive breastfeeding for six months.
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