Breastfeeding has great benefits for the baby, but also for the mother. It has been shown that mothers who breastfeed they are less at risk of developing diabetes, high cholesterol and heart disease, and according to recent research, too have a lower risk of hypertension.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina have wanted to know the correlation that exists between breastfeeding and the subsequent risks that a mother runs from suffering from hypertension.
In a sample of 56,000 American women, they found that those who had fed their children exclusively with breast milk for at least six months were less likely to develop hypertension in fourteen years than those who had not.
Of all of them, about 8,900 women in total were diagnosed with hypertension. However, the odds were 22 percent older in women who had not breastfed their son, compared to those who did so for six months.
Time would be a key factor as a protective effect, because as they have been able to observe, women who had never breastfed or had only done so for three months or less were almost 25 percent more likely to develop hypertension than those who fed their babies breast milk for at least a year.
In conclusion, breastfeeding the baby for at least six months would have a long-term protection against maternal hypertension. One more benefit, this time from the mother's side, to add to breastfeeding.
