title: Invited Commentary: Breastfeeding and Maternal Cardiovascular Health--Weighing the Evidence.
abstract: Recently, there has been growing interest in understanding the ways in which lactation affects maternal health. The accompanying article by Palmer et al. (Am J Epidemiol. 2015;181(12):932-939), particularly their finding that prepregnancy obesity modifies the relationship between lactation and postpartum weight gain, makes an important contribution to this field. In this commentary, I discuss these findings within the context of other recent literature which indicates that whether or not a mother breastfeeds her newborn appears to be a powerful predictor of the mother's future risk of developing diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease, independent of maternal weight or body mass index in later life.
authors.forename: Eleanor Bimla
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Schwarz
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American; D001942:Breast Feeding; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007774:Lactation / Q000502:physiology*; D009765:Obesity / Q000209:etiology*; D015430:Weight Gain / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: breastfeeding; cardiovascular disease; lactation; maternal health; obesity; visceral adiposity