Breastfeeding has well-established benefits to babies. Our study shows that it also benefits the mental health of mothers
- Maria Iacovou
A new study of over 10,000 mothers has shown that women who breastfed their babies were at significantly lower risk of postnatal depression than those who did not.
The study, by researchers in the UK and Spain, and published in the journal Maternal and Child Health, shows that mothers who planned to breastfeed and who actually went on to breastfeed were around 50% less likely to become depressed than mothers who had not planned to, and who did not, breastfeed. Mothers who planned to breastfeed, but who did not go on to breastfeed, were over twice as likely to become depressed as mothers who had not planned to, and who did not, breastfeed.
The relationship between breastfeeding and depression was most pronounced when babies were eight weeks old, but much smaller when babies were eight months or older.
The research, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, used data drawn from the Avon Longitudinal Survey of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), a study of 13,998 births in the Bristol area in the early 1990s. Maternal depression was measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale when babies were eight weeks, and eight, 21 and 33 months old. Depression was also assessed at two points during pregnancy, enabling the researchers to take into account mothers’ pre-existing mental health conditions.
Read the full story
Image:Mothering Touch (cropped)
Credit: DSC_7899
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
_______________________________________