Breast-Feeding Does Not Affect Relapse Risk in Mothers with Multiple Sclerosis

Many specialists in multiple sclerosis (MS) withhold disease-modifying MS therapies during breast-feeding because these agents are excreted in milk. Does extended breast-feeding have an effect on postpartum relapse rates? To find out, researchers followed 298 women (302 pregnancies) in Italy for at least 1 year after delivery. About one third chose to breast-feed for at least 2 months; most of that subgroup (28% of the entire cohort) breast-fed for at least 6 months.

Conventional statistical analyses suggested that prepartum MS relapse rates were similar between women who breast-fed and those who did not. However, a more powerful analysis accounting for potential confounders showed that women who breast-fed had significantly lower MS relapse…