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Women were able to remove the increased
diabetes risk by breastfeeding for as little
as three months per child.
Image: iStockphoto

New research shows having children increases a woman’s chance of developing type 2 diabetes but breastfeeding can reduce risk to the same level as women who never had children.
 
The study, published in the American Diabetes Association Journal Diabetes Care, compared women with similar weight and looked at the combined effect on type 2 diabetes of having had children and having breastfed. The data was drawn from Australia’s largest ever study of healthy ageing – 45 and Up – and the study was co-authored by Professor Emily Banks of the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at ANU.
 
Study author, Dr Bette Liu, says, women who did not breastfeed were 50 per cent more likely to develop diabetes later in life, compared with women who hadn’t had children.
 
“But women who had children and breastfed each child for at least three months had no increased risk of developing diabetes,” says Dr Liu.
 
Dr Liu says the findings are important because they show breastfeeding is something that a woman can do to modify her risk of developing diabetes.
 
“If you breastfeed, even for as little as three months for each child, your likelihood of developing diabetes is reduced to the same level as a woman who hasn’t had children,” says Dr Liu.
 
The findings add to the mounting evidence suggesting that breastfeeding benefits mothers as well as babies.
 
Type 2 Diabetes is an increasing health problem in Australia. More than one million Australians have diabetes and about half are unaware. Diabetes is now the fastest growing chronic disease in Australia and the seventh highest cause of death.
 
Professor Banks says policymakers need to think about making it as easy as possible for women to breastfeed.
 
“Diabetes is an important and increasing health problem and strategies to prevent it are critical,” she says.