As a result of associated metabolic changes, breastfeeding for more than 3 months in women who suffered from gestational diabetes while pregnant, can protect them against type 2 diabetes; a risk that persists for up to 15 years postpartum.
These were the findings of a study by German researchers at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, who studied whether there was a link between postpartum changes in metabolic profile, and breastfeeding for more than 3 months in women with gestational diabetes.
The researchers studied 197 women who had developed gestational diabetes in pregnancy, for an average of three and half years after delivery. During a glucose challenge test, their metabolic profiles were collected, including 156 metabolites; which were compared for women who breastfed for more than 3 months, and those who breastfed for less than 3 months or not at all.
It was found that lactating for more than 3 months in women with gestational diabetes is associated with changes in the metabolic profile linked with type 2 diabetes in an earlier study.
“We observed that the metabolites in women who had breastfed for more than three months differed significantly from those who had had shorter lactation periods, says Study author and Director of the Institute of Diabetes Research (IDF) at Helmholtzdirector, Dr. Daniela Much.
“Longer periods of lactation are linked to a change in the production of phospholipids and to lower concentrations of branched-chain amino acids in the mothers’ blood plasma.”
The lead author Dr. Sandra Hummel, head of the Gestational Diabetes working group at the IDF, pointed out that women with gestational diabetes breastfeed less than non-diabetic moms, reports diabetes.co.uk.
“On average, women with gestational diabetes breastfeed less often and for shorter duration than non-diabetic mothers.
“The aim is now to develop strategies that will improve the breastfeeding behaviours of mothers with gestational diabetes.”
