Heena Sharma Blog

Breastfeeding is majorly correlated with positive health outcomes in infants, but it might not be the causal mechanism. Researchers from the University at Buffalo found that the benefits of breastfeeding, reported in the vast majority of prior research, could be influenced by the mother's characteristics, such as what they know about health and nutrition. "It's important to understand that we are not trying to imply that just intending to breastfeed is what's leading to these health outcomes," said Jessica Su, co-author of the study. "What we found is that intending mothers had more information about nutrition and diet; they more frequently consulted their physicians; and had better access to information related to infant health than those moms who did not intend to breastfeed." Read Complete Article Article Source >> BS

Turns out, women who breastfeed their first child for five months or longer are more likely to have more children as compared to women who breastfeed for shorter durations or not at all. Cornell University professor of sociology Vida Maralani, with Hunter College professor Samuel Stabler, reported that women who initiate breastfeeding did not differ in how many children they expected to have before they started their families. Rather, the number of children women actually bear differs by how long they breastfeed their first child. Women who breastfeed for shorter durations are more likely to have fewer children than they expected, while women who breastfeed longer are as likely to achieve their expectations to exceed them. Read Complete Article Article Source >> Business Standard