Breastfeeding Moms less likely to develop heart attacks

It is well-known that breastfeeding is important for babies' health, but a study has now suggested that it is important for mothers' health as well.

"The longer a mother nurses her baWomen who had breastfed their babies for more than a year were 10 per cent less likely to have had a heart attack, stroke, or developed heart disease than women who had never breastfed.by, the better for both of them," said Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, who lead the study at the University of Pittsburgh in the US.

"Our study provides another good reason for workplace policies to encourage women to breastfeed their infants," underlined Dr Schwarz, assistant professor of medicine, epidemiology, and obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at Pittsburgh.

According to the study, published in the May issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, the longer women breastfeed, the lower their risk of heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular disease.

Postmenopausal women who breastfed for at least one month had lower rates of diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, all known to cause heart disease, according to the findings, which were based on 139,681 postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative study of chronic disease, initiated in 1994.