. . . women with HDPs experience a similar or slightly enhanced cardioprotective benefit associated with breastfeeding as women who experienced a normotensive pregnancy.
Stratified by the presence of HDP, no significant changes in diastolic blood pressure, mean arterial pressure, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), or glucose were observed at follow-up among those without HDP. For the HDP group, however, breastfeeding for 1 to 3 months was associated with improvements in mean arterial pressure (MD, -3.11; P <.05), LDL-C (MD, -0.41 mmol/L; P <.001), and glucose (MD, -4.78%; P <.05) whereas breastfeeding for 6 to 9 months was associated with improvements in diastolic blood pressure (MD, -4.87 mm Hg; P <.05), mean arterial pressure (MD, -4.61; P <.05) and LDL-C (MD, -0.40 mmol/L; P <.001).

In a sensitivity analysis which incorporated preterm birth, no significant differences in trends were observed. Similarly, accounting for parity did not affect trends.

These findings may be biased by the trends in pregnancy care and breastfeeding in the 1990s in the UK.

“Our results contribute to the evidence demonstrating that women with HDPs experience a similar or slightly enhanced cardioprotective benefit associated with breastfeeding as women who experienced a normotensive pregnancy,” the study authors wrote. “Because women who experience an HDP have excess risk of poor cardiometabolic health in the years following pregnancy, this high-risk group may derive the greatest benefit from breastfeeding should our results reflect a causal effect.”

References

Magnus MC, Wallace MK, Demirci JR, Catov JM, ÇSchmella MJ, Fraser A. Breastfeeding and later-life cardiometabolic health in women with and without hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. J Am Heart Assoc. Published online February 27, 2023. doi:10.1161/JAHA.122.026696

This article was first published here. You can read the original article in full here.