Breast Feeding Beneficial for Mom’s Health, Too
More and more research is being done to explore a child’s lifelong benefit from breastfeeding but new research has identified a link between breast feeding and a mother’s reduced risk of developing crippling rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to a recent study report presented in the online issue of the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
When 136 women who have rheumatoid arthritis were compared with 544 women the same age but who do not have RA, it was found that the women who had breast fed a child were less likely to have the disease. Those who breast fed the longest, 13 months or more, enjoyed a rate of risk for rheumatoid arthritis about half that of women who had not ever breast fed. Breast feeding for a shorter duration, one month to a year, reduced risk by about 25%.
Breast feeding was compared to taking oral contraceptives, which contain the hormones associated with pregnancy, but there was no similar benefit found in taking the oral contraceptives.
Over the past 30 years, the number of women choosing to breast feed has grown dramatically. The research team reports that it is difficult to conclusively link breast feeding to a reduced risk for rheumatoid arthritis but the research strengthens the growing body of evidence that breast feeding is beneficial to the baby and, quite possibly, to the mother, too.
Source: BMJ
Hello,
I believe this web application will be of interest to people with an active interest in both breastfeeding and healthcare research.
Begin forwarded message:
I want to tell you about a new web resource that can be of real service to the breastfeeding community and beyond. World Hall enables us to discuss policy issues, identify who can do something about them, propose actions and vote —- to have our voices heard by those in positions to implement change.
This is a unique opportunity: World Hall is being launched in the breastfeeding community. Actions regarding ban the bags, breastfeeding in public, breastfeeding in the workplace, insurance coverage for lactation services and others are already posted on World Hall.
World Hall is different than a breastfeeding listserv or blog. We will be joined in the conversation by activists in other areas allowing for cross conversation and voting, enriching all involved. Our active engagement in World Hall will raise the visibility of breastfeeding to all who are listening to and conversing on World Hall. World Hall is free and non-commercial. It was developed by students at the New England Complex Systems Institute (necsi.edu) with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC is a great example of a major player that is watching the system and paying attention to the actions proposed and discussed.
Your active engagement in World Hall will help to raise the visibility of the issues we all work on every day. Please vote, add new actions, comments, and identify new issues and players. Share World Hall with others.
The site is at:
http://www.worldhall.org/breastfeeding
I look forward to meeting you there.
——————————————
Naomi Bar-Yam Ph.D.
Executive Director
Mothers’ Milk Bank of New England
Naomi@milkbankne.org
http://www.milkbankne.org
——————————————
Regards,
Nina
Hello,.,.,(“,)
i knew already that breastfeeding have benefits to the child and also to the mother,
but i didn’t thought that breastfeeding can actually reduced the risk for rheumatoid arthritis..!
Thats a great benefit to the mother who are breastfeeding,.,,