Infant Feeding and Maternal Mortality

Recent findings suggest that curtailed lactation can raise maternal risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, visceral adiposity, hyperlipidemia, and cardiovascular disease (CVD). To assess whether lifetime duration of breast-feeding predicts maternal cardiovascular mortality, investigators analyzed data from a Norwegian population-based prospective cohort study including 21,889 women (age range, 30–85). Linkage to the national Cause of Death Registry indicated that, after median follow-up of 14.5 years, 1246 women died from CVD.

Among parous women younger than 65 at study entry, those who never breast-fed had more than twice the risk for dying from CVD as those who ever breast-fed. Among parous women aged 45 to 64 at enrollment, those who nev…