Overweight Moms May Have Trouble Breast-Feeding

A newborn baby’s suckling triggers the production of the hormone prolactin, which is responsible for stimulating milk production early in lactation. However, new research shows that for new mothers who are overweight or obese, the prolactin response is diminished in the first week after giving birth.

A newborn baby’s suckling triggers the production of the hormone prolactin, which is responsible for stimulating milk production early in lactation. However, new research shows that for new mothers who are overweight or obese, the prolactin response is diminished in the first week after giving birth. This finding, reported by two researchers from New York in the journal Pediatrics, may explain why overweight women often give up on breast-feeding. “Our study shows that heavier women need even more support to be successful breast-feeders,” Dr. Kathleen M. Rasmussen from Cornell University in Ithaca told Reuters Health. “In practical terms, this means encouraging heavier women to seek help from lactation counselors and scheduling early follow-up appointments in the first days and weeks after birth.” Previously, Rasmussen and her colleagues observed that while overweight and obese women are as likely as normal-weight women to initiate breast-feeding, they are less likely to continue. “In our other research, psychosocial characteristics such as self-efficacy for breast-feeding in heavier women did not seem to explain their short duration of breast-feeding,” Rasmussen said. “We proposed in our study that the normal increase in prolactin concentration in response to infant feeding might be affected by obesity,” she said. Rasmussen and Dr. Chris L. Kjolhede from Bassett Healthcare Research Institute in Cooperstown, measured prolactin and progesterone concentrations before and 30 minutes after the beginning of a suckling episode. They found that women who were overweight or obese before becoming pregnant had a lower prolactin response to suckling than normal-weight women at 48 hours but not 7 days after delivery. This “would be expected” to compromise the ability of overweight or obese women to produce milk, and may contribute to early discontinuation of breast-feeding, the researchers suggest. It is “important” to note, Rasmussen said, that “heavier women can be successful breast-feeders, but they need more support than normal-weight women.” In this study, concentrations of progesterone were not markedly different between overweight and normal-weight women, a finding that does not bear out the idea that higher progesterone concentrations in overweight women might delay milk production, the team adds. (SOURCE: Pediatrics: Reuters Health News: May 2004.)