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 Nancy E. Wight MD, IBCLC, FABM, FAAP
Neonatologist, Children's Hospital and Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women
Theoretically, if there were no increase in maternal energy intake during lactation, as compared with a woman's normal, non-pregnant, non-lactating state, weight loss for every breastfeeding woman would be rapid and dramatic, on the order of 13 kg (28.6 lbs) over the first 6 months postpartum. As this rarely happens, there may be compensatory factors, such as decreased activity or increased appetite, to maintain body weight. Most of the data on weight loss with breastfeeding has come from observational studies, which are, by nature subject to multiple confounding variables, such as maternal age, ethnicity, education, income, pre-pregnancy weight, pregnancy weight gain, parity, inter-birth interval, |
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physical activity and dietary practices. Observational
studies also suffer from varying methods and timing of assessing the outcome variable: weight or body mass index (BMI). Perhaps the biggest problem is the one all breastfeeding studies face - the definition of breastfeeding. Both duration and exclusivity of breastfeeding may be important factors in weight loss.
Dr. K. Dewey reviewed the available literature and presented 3 tentative conclusions. 1 First, she found evidence for a dose-response relationship between the degree of breastfeeding and the degree of weight loss, that is, the more exclusively and longer a woman breastfeeds, the greater the weight loss. Second, the greatest weight difference between lactating and non-lactating women was found at 3-6 months postpartum. Finally, although breastfeeding does appear to enhance the rate of weight loss, at least during certain time intervals, the magnitude of this effect is small compared with other factors such as pregnancy weight gain, dietary practices and physical activity. The average difference in weight loss by 12 months postpartum between lactating and non-lactating women was about 0.6 to 2.0 kg (1.3-4.4 lbs).There are many wonderful benefits of breastfeeding for the mother. A modest weight loss may be one of them. We certainly should not put it at the top of the list! References: |
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