Obese mothers and breastfeeding

Enormous weight gain in pregnant women may lead to early stoppage of breastfeeding. Early termination of breastfeeding in lactating mothers could be due to some sort of hormonal imbalance as the secretion of the hormone prolactin was blunted in overweight nursing women. But then with plenty of assistance even very obese women can breast-feed successfully. To better understand factors that might be involved in early termination of breastfeeding by heavier women, researchers from the Copenhagen University Hospital studied 37,459 women who delivered infants between 1999 and 2002, following them for 18 months after they gave birth. Among women who were morbidly obese (body mass index of 40 or greater), a little more than 14 per cent had stopped exclusive breastfeeding by the time their child was a week old, compared with 4 per cent of normal-weight women. Throughout the course of the study, the likelihood of stopping breastfeeding rose with body mass index (BMI). The association of pre-pregnant body mass index (BMI) and weight gain during pregnancy with breastfeeding was assessed. These findings are worrisome given the high prevalence of overweight and obesity among women of reproductive age in the US — the percentage of women in their 20s and 30s having BMIs of 40 or greater is very high at 8 per cent — the findings are worrisome. However, the findings showed a positive outcome that even the heaviest women were able to initiate and continue breastfeeding. Improving the overall situation by taking help from lactation consultants could help a lot more women become successful at breastfeeding. Thus, maternal obesity itself is really just an indicator that a woman may need additional assistance in order to successfully breast-feed her infant.