Lactation After Normal Pregnancy Is Not Associated With Blood Glucose Fluctuations
- Rhonda Bentley-Lewis, MD1,
- Allison B. Goldfine, MD2,
- Dina E. Green, MD3 and
- Ellen W. Seely, MD1
- 1Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Hypertension, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
- 2Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston, Massachusetts
- 3Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Bone Disease, Department of Medicine, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, New York
- Address correspondence and reprint requests to Ellen W. Seely, MD, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, Hypertension, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115. E-mail: eseely{at}partners.org
- AUCg, area under the curve for glucose
- BWH, Brigham and Women's Hospital
- CGMS, continuous glucose monitoring system
- GCRC, general clinical research center
Breastfeeding is the preferred method of feeding infants up to 12 months of age (1). Breastfed infants experience fewer and less severe infections and may be protected against future disease development (2). Mothers who breastfeed potentially experience accelerated weight loss (3), a lower risk of breast and ovarian cancer (3), and a lower risk of type 2 diabetes than mothers who do not breastfeed (4).
Breastfeeding is recommended for all women, including those with gestational (5) or pregestational (6) diabetes. However, data suggest that diabetic women may experience hypoglycemia during breastfeeding; subsequently, they have been advised to eat before or during breastfeeding to avoid hypoglycemia (6). Because data on blood glucose fluctuations in normoglycemic women are limited, we tested the hypothesis that lactation in healthy normoglycemic women will not cause significant blood glucose fluctuations.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—
Women were recruited randomly from the Pregnancy Program at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH). The BWH Human Research Committee approved the study protocol, and all women provided informed written consent before participation. Healthy women were included if they were 18–40 years of age, 6 weeks to 6 months postpartum, free of a history of gestational or pregestational diabetes, and breastfeeding with no more than one bottle per day of supplementation. Women were excluded if they had an abnormal 1-h glucose challenge test during pregnancy (5), were taking …
