Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy (HDP) – such as chronic or pregnancy hypertension, preeclampsia and economha – belong to the main causes of the death of mothers and infants in the United States.
In the years 2017–2019 16% of all American pregnancies were complicated by HDP diagnosisWith much higher indicators visible among non-Latin Black/African American and American Indians from Indians/Alaska. But HDP does not only affect women in a short period; These disorders can increase their long -term risk of heart disease, kidney disease and stroke.
However, scientists from Yale may be able to limit these long -term health threats by breastfeeding. In a new study, they discovered that HDP diagnosis before or during pregnancy concerned higher chances of breastfeeding or for those who initiated breastfeeding, a higher probability of stopping. Discoveries suggest that women with HDP can use targeted interventions that promote their exposure to cardioprote Benefits of breastfeeding.
The discoveries are published in the journal.
We looked at breastfeeding or whether you have ever started breastfeeding. We also looked at the duration of breastfeeding. So if you started, how long do you breastfeed? Having hypertension in pregnancy was associated with worse results for both measures. “
Deanna Nardella, a pediatric instructor and a scientist doctor from the Yale School of Medicine (YSM) and the first author of the study
There may be many barriers in starting and maintaining, breastfeeding after delivery, from lactation challenges and inadequate parental leave to the lack of breastfeeding education among patients and healthcare providers. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US, 83% of women start breastfeeding, but only 25% continued to breastfeed only for the first six months – the recommended duration of leading health organizations.
“These statistics begging the question, why is it?”, Said Nardella. “As a practicing pediatrician in the New Haven community, I do not often see parents who really do not want to breastfeed. I often see that parents are trying to breastfeed, soon after they encounter common – and often addressable – such as pain, snap difficulties and problems with milk delivery.
“Unfortunately, many families do not receive a timely care they need to solve such challenges, which causes breastfeeding to stop. I think that the consumption in the US in breastfeeding rates, especially in early weeks to months after delivery, largely reflect problems with systems.”
It has been shown that other diseases coexisting mother, including chronic and pregnancy diabetes, have a negative impact on breastfeeding results, but little is known about breastfeeding results for people with HDP despite its high spread among people in pregnancy in the United States. For Nardella, understanding this relationship is crucial for promoting health capital.
“We know that black and native women in the USA have a higher indicator of hypertensive disorders,” she said. “These communities also have the lowest breastfeeding indicators. Although we cannot say that HDP directly cause these observed unevenness, understanding of the relationship between HDP and breastfeeding and duration, and the duration can promote more fair long -term cardiometabolic results for pregnant people and infants from these communities.”
In a new study, scientists tried to better understand this relationship by analyzing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (CDC) (PRAM) risk monitoring system. Strollers are examined by women in the USA, usually about four months after delivery, in terms of their attitudes, beliefs and experiences during pregnancy, prenatal and postpartum.
Their attempt included women who provided a living infant between January 2016 to November 2021 and which provided full HDP data and lack of initiation or stopping breastfeeding. Scientists defined HDP as reported high blood pressure or hypertension, preeclampsia or ecmampsia before or during pregnancy. Women were determined so that they would never breastfeed if they reported “no” so that they would ever breastfeed in the examination. Among the people who reported breastfeeding, scientists defined the time to stop stopping 0.5 weeks, if they reported breastfeeding less than a week, their exact duration of breastfeeding (in weeks), if it is assured, or the age of infants at the end of the survey (in weeks), if they reported that they were still breastfeeding.
Their analytical sample included 205,247 participants – a weighted sample representing almost 11 million American women – from 43 states, Washington, DC and Puerto Rico, and on all socio -economic, racial and ethnic environments. They discovered that women with HDP had 11% higher chances of never breastfeeding, and among those who began breastfeeding, a 17% higher probability of stopping at some point during the postpartum period. The median time of stopping breastfeeding was 17 weeks shorter for women with HDP than people without HDP. These discoveries suggest a negative relationship between HDP and breastfeeding results.
“Over 80% of American families decide to breastfeed their infant,” said Sarah Taylor, a pediatric professor (newborn medicine-perfatal medicine) in ysm and co-author of the study. “However, most do not achieve the goal set by the American Academy of Pediatrics to only breastfeed for six months. Studies, such as a study showing the relationship between HDP and shorter breastfeeding time, directs strategy development to help all families achieve the purpose of breastfeeding.”
Scientists say that future research to identify the mechanisms underlying this relationship between HDP and breastfeeding to develop targeted, innovative strategies to improve breastfeeding results for people with HDP.
“Such strategies may include a standard, dedicated prenatal consultation of lactation for people who want to try breastfeeding and have risk factors to experience worse breastfeeding results, such as HDP,” said Nardella. “Pregnancy is critical and often unused period for education and lactation support.”
She added: “This article provides basic knowledge about building future research in order to understand how our healthcare systems can best support people with hypertension in achieving the personal purposes of baby feeding. As a system, we must better support women with HDP in achieving all people associated with baby feeding, especially among people associated with work, especially among residents, as well residents, as well as among small residents, and their investments among small societies, as well as their investments, and their infanting, as well as their investments, and their infanting, and their infanting people.
The study was supported by grants from the Yale Pediatric Scholars program, the Yale clinician scholar program, as well as the Clinical and Translation Award from the National Center for Advancing Translational Science, part of the National Institutes of Health (Nih).
Source:
Reference to the journal:
Nardella, d. (2025). Disorders of pregnancy and breastfeeding among women in the USA. . doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen 20125.21902.