Benefits to maternal health

Breast cancer (14)  Breastfeeding for at least 3 months can reduce the risk of premenopausal breast
cancer by one half.

Osteoporosis (15) The risk of hip fracture in women over 65 is reduced by half by having breastfed. Breastfeeding each child for 9 months reduces the risk to 1/4

Birth spacing (16) As long as a mother full or nearly fully breastfeeds she is 98% protected from a pregnancy for the first 6 months and 96% after 6 months and as long as she has no return of menses.

Ovarian cancer (17) Breastfeeding for at least 2 months per child reduces the risk of epithelial ovarian
cancer by 25%.

References

14. United Kingdom National Case-Control Study Group. Breastfeeding and risk of breast cancer in young women, British Medical Journal, 307:17-20, 1993.

15. Commings RG and Klineberg RJ. Breastfeeding and other reproductive factors and the risk of hit fracture in elderly women, International Journal of Epidemiology, 2(4): 684-691, 1993.

16. Kennedy KI and Visness CM. Contraceptive efficacy of lactational amenorrhoea, The Lancet, 339: 227-230, 1992.

17. Rosenblatt KA et al. Lactation and the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer, International Journal of Epidemiology, 22(2): 192-197, 1993

Prepared for IBFAN by Geneva Infant Feeding Action