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American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 79, No. 3, 487-493, March 2004
© 2004 American Society for Clinical Nutrition

ORIGINAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION

Breastfeeding and postpartum weight retention in a cohort of Brazilian women1,2,3

Gilberto Kac, Maria HDA Benício, Gustavo Velásquez-Meléndez, Joaquim G Valente and Cláudio J Struchiner

1 From the Department of Social and Applied Nutrition, Institute of Nutrition, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro (GK); the Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (MHDAB); the Department of Maternal and Pediatric Nursing and Public Health, School of Nursing, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil (GV-M); the Department of Epidemiology and Quantitative Methods in Health, National School of Public Health, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro (JGV); the Institute of Social Medicine, Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro (JGV and CJS); and the Program for Scientific Computation, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro (CJS)

Background: The relation between postpartum weight retention and breastfeeding practices is controversial.

Objective: Defining breastfeeding as the period when a child is exclusively or predominantly breastfed, we studied the association between breastfeeding duration and postpartum weight retention.

Design: We followed 405 women aged 18-45 y who were assessed at 0.5, 2, 6, and 9 mo postpartum. The outcome variable, postpartum weight retention, was expressed as the difference between the observed weight at each follow-up and the reported prepregnancy weight. The main statistical procedure used was the longitudinal mixed-effects model.

Results: Mean postpartum weight retention at the end of the study was 3.1 kg. Single women aged >= 30 y retained more weight than did younger single women or married women. The combined effect of breastfeeding duration and percentage of body fat at baseline was significant only for women with < 30% body fat. According to the model’s prediction, when women who had 22% body fat and breastfed for 180 d were compared with those who had 22% body fat and breastfed for only 30 d, each month of breastfeeding contributed -0.44 kg to postpartum weight retention. When only the percentage of body fat was varied, the total effect was 3.0, 1.7, 1.2, and 0.04 kg in women with 18%, 25%, 28%, and 35% body fat, respectively.

Conclusions: These results support the hypothesis of an association between breastfeeding and postpartum weight retention and suggest that encouraging prolonged breastfeeding might contribute to decreases in postpartum weight retention.

Key Words: Breastfeeding • lactation • postpartum weight retention • maternal obesity • women of childbearing age • follow-up study • longitudinal regression






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