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Breastfeeding may help reduce mothers' risk of strokes and heart attacks

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:40 AM on 21st April 2009

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1172242/Breastfeeding-help-reduce-mothers-risk-strokes-heart-attacks.html

Breastfeeding could protect mothers against heart attacks and strokes, according to scientists. 

A study found that women who breastfed for more than a year were 10 per cent less likely to suffer from the conditions than those who had never breastfed.
 

Just one month of breastfeeding was found to lower rates of diabetes, blood pressure and choleterol, all of which contribute to heart disease.
 

Women who breastfed for more than a year were 10 per cent less likely to suffer from heart attacks and strokes than those who had never breastfed
 

Experts at the University of Pittsburgh asked 139,681 women who went through the menopause in their fifties about their breastfeeding history.
 

Researcher Dr Eleanor Bimla Schwarz said: 'Our study provides another reason for workplace policies to encourage women to breastfeed their infants.' 

The UK has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in Europe, with almost one in three new mothers never attempting it.
 

The research, published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynaecology, showed those who breastfed for more than a year were 12 per cent less likely to have high blood pressure and 20 per cent less likely to have diabetes and high cholesterol.
 

Rosie Dodds, from the National Childbirth Trust, said: 'The Government needs to make it easier and more acceptable for women to breastfeed when they are out and about.'