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Nutrition During Lactation (1991) / Chapter Skim
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8 Maternal Health Effects of Breastfeeding
Pages 197-212

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From page 197...
... also may have been partially responsible for the lack of interest in long-term maternal health outcomes. Socioeconomic and demographic differences between groups that choose to breastfeed and those that choose to feed their infants formula and historical changes in the characteristics of populations who have chosen to breastfeed or formula feed may have discouraged population-based studies of the relationship between long-term maternal outcomes and lactation history.
From page 198...
... Maternal nutritional status during lactation may also be an important factor in regulating the duration of postpartum amenorrhea. Observational data show a clear association between poor maternal nutritional status and prolonged postpartum amenorrhea accompanied by persistently elevated prolactin values (see, for example, Hennart et al.
From page 199...
... However, it is not clear if the consistent decrease in the duration of postpartum amenorrhea results directly from improved maternal nutritional status or from factors that vary with maternal nutritional status, such as the infant's breastfeeding behavior (which may be changed by alterations in milk composition or in the characteristics of the breastfeeding sessions)
From page 200...
... t19901~. Thus, it would be wise to examine the time it takes to return to menses and ovulation in experimental studies designed to improve maternal nutritional status during lactation.
From page 201...
... Some studies have been conducted in animals to examine the effects of pregnancy not followed by lactation on maternal body composition. In humans, studies have focused on energy expenditure, adjustments in the metabolism of adipose tissue, and changes in body weight during lactation and on maternal body mass at various times after lactation has ceased.
From page 202...
... The lipolytic effect of noradrenaline administration is similar in both tissue sites during lactation but is much less in the femoral region of nonpregnant women and of women during early pregnancy. In femoral adipose tissue, lipoprotein lipase activity decreases in lactating women; in abdominal adipose tissue, it remains about the same.
From page 203...
... estimated the modifying effect of lactation on weight gain associated with increasing parity and found that the positive impact of parity on maternal body weight was 30% greater when parity was associated with subsequent lactation. However, the design of this study was limited: the method of feeding during the index pregnancy was used as a marker for the mode of feeding in previous pregnancies, and the duration and degree of breastfeeding were not defined.
From page 204...
... Several mechanisms may act during pregnancy and lactation to ameliorate the impact of lactational demands for calcium. Serum osteocalcin levels are higher in lactating women early in the postpartum period compared with those of pregnant and of nonpregnant, nonlactating control women (osteocalcin is a hormone released at rates proportional to the formation of new bone)
From page 205...
... Measurements were obtained by dual-photon absorptiometry in 588 ambulatory white women aged 21 to 95. No statistically significant differences in lumbar spine bone mineral density were detected between women who had breastfed compared with those who had not; however, parous women who breastfed longer than 2 weeks had higher bone mineral density than those who had not.
From page 206...
... In general, the link to breast cancer is believed to be the modifying effect of lactation on the potential exposure of the breast to estrogen and other steroids during the reproductive period. Factors usually related to breast cancer have been age, country of birth, socioeconomic class, place of residence, race, age at first full-term pregnancy, oophorectomy, body build, age at menarche, age at menopause, family history of premenopausal bilateral breast cancer, history of cancer in one breast, fibrocystic disease, primary cancer in an ovary or in the endometrium, radiation to the chest, or first-degree relatives with breast cancer (Kelsey and Berkowitz, 19881.
From page 207...
... Kvale and Heuch (1987) evaluated relationships between previous lactation experience and risk of breast cancer in 50,274 parous Norwegian women (approximate age range, 20 to 69 years)
From page 208...
... The effect of maternal nutritional status on this delay is not understood. Although lactation provides important contraceptive benefits on a worldwide basis, it is not a dependable method of contraception for individuals.
From page 209...
... 1989. Postpartum changes in maternal weight and body fat depots in lactating vs nonlactating women.
From page 210...
... 1978. Postpartum amenorrhea: how is it affected by maternal nutritional status?
From page 211...
... II. Effect on maternal health, nutritional status and biochemistry.
From page 212...
... 1988. Adenosine and the regional differences in adipose tissue metabolism in women.


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