One of the Amazing Benefits of Having Children and Breastfeeding

I recently watched an excellent webinar by Dr. Sherene Loi, MD, PhD. She specializes in breast cancer.  She mentioned that breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. The incidence is highest in non-childbearing women. Through her research and the research of others, immune cells were found to be present in the normal breast tissue of women who had given birth and who had breastfed. These immune cells are present even 30 years after having a child and can actually help a woman with aggressive breast cancer fight it off. 

The younger a woman has children and the more children she has, the lower the risk of the less aggressive types of breast cancer. For every child, the risk goes down about 7%.

Breastfeeding duration is especially important with regards a reduction in the more aggressive type of breast cancer, triple negative. The longer a woman breastfeeds, the lower the risk. It is estimated that for every year of breastfeeding the risk does down by 4.3%. This is in addition to the reduction in risk per child.

Breastfeeding is amazing!

Written by Gina Peterson, IBCLC