Can Breastfeeding Reduce My Risk For Breast Cancer?

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by Heidi Green
December 09, 2011

I’ve heard about the many benefits breastfeeding provides for mothers as well as babies. But is it true that breastfeeding can reduce my risk for breast cancer?

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Yes! A large-scale study of 9,000 U.S. women found that breastfeeding offers broad protection against the two major types of breast cancer. This is true for all women—those who give birth before age 25 (the average age of first birth in the U.S.) as well as those who do so later.

A subsequent case-controlled study of nearly 800 mothers in Israel found a significant reduction in breast cancer risk for women who ever breastfed. Furthermore, they found this reduction to be influenced by duration of breastfeeding; in other words, the women who breastfed the longest were at lowest risk for breast cancer. This was true for both premenopausal and postmenopausal women.

Numerous other studies have demonstrated similar protection. Interestingly, some studies have even shown the protection from breast cancer to extend to daughters of breastfeeding mothers!

Breastfeeding not only reduces a woman’s risk for breast cancer, but also reduces her risk of uterine and ovarian cancer.

Click here to learn all the benefits breastfeeding offers for both mothers and babies.