Breastfeeding and Long-Term Maternal Health: How Nursing Supports Your Body Beyond Babyhood

When we are typically educated on the benefits of breastfeeding, the focus is usually on how it helps the baby. Breastmilk provides optimal nutrition, supports immune development, and protects infants from infections. But breastfeeding also supports the health of mothers in significant ways, with effects that extend well beyond the postpartum period.

Evidence shows that breastfeeding is linked to improvements in metabolic and cardiovascular health, bone density, and hormonal balance, and is associated with a reduced risk of several cancers, including breast and ovarian cancer. These findings highlight that breastfeeding is not only supportive for infant health but also an important part of maternal long-term wellness. 

Breastfeeding engages your body in a remarkable metabolic process. Producing milk requires an average of 400–600 calories per day, mobilizing fat stores laid down during pregnancy while also stabilizing blood sugar and cholesterol levels.

Large cohort studies have found that women who breastfeed have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, hypertension, myocardial infarction, and cardiovascular disease later in life (1,2). These benefits are dose-dependent: the longer you breastfeed across your lifetime, the stronger the protection.

A prospective study found that women who breastfed for two years or longer cumulatively had a significantly lower risk of cardiovascular events compared to those who never breastfed (3).

• Blood pressure regulation: Lactation stimulates oxytocin, a hormone that lowers blood pressure and improves blood vessel function (4).

• Metabolic reset: Breastfeeding helps clear the fat and glucose stores built up during pregnancy, reducing long-term risks like insulin resistance and high cholesterol (5).

• Reduced visceral fat: Sustained lactation mobilizes abdominal fat stores, lowering future cardiovascular burden (6).

What’s remarkable is that these benefits persist long after weaning—protecting your heart health decades into the future.

Breastfeeding requires a precise conversation between hormones within the body. Prolactin, oxytocin, and estrogen shifts all contribute not just to milk production but also to a woman’s overall health trajectory.

• Oxytocin release during letdown isn’t just about bonding or the milk ejection reflex. This release of the “love hormone” lowers blood pressure and promotes stress resilience (4).

• Prolactin plays a role in maternal calmness and sleep regulation, buffering against postpartum mood disturbances (7).

• Delayed return of ovulation: Breastfeeding- through lactation amenorrhea- can reduce lifetime exposure to estrogen and progesterone cycles, and can lower the risk of certain cancers.

This unique hormonal profile contributes to both short-term recovery and long-term protection.

Perhaps one of the most striking maternal benefits of breastfeeding is its association with a reduced risk of several cancers, particularly breast and ovarian cancer.

The World Health Organization and the World Cancer Research Fund have both affirmed that breastfeeding lowers the lifetime risk of breast cancer (8,9).

Breastfeeding works to reduce cancer risk through:

• Hormonal suppression: During lactation, ovulation is suppressed, reducing cumulative lifetime exposure to estrogen and progesterone (10).

• Cellular differentiation: Breast cells that have fully matured into milk-producing cells are less likely to become malignant (11).

• Shedding of breast tissue: After weaning, breast involution clears potentially damaged or precancerous cells (12).

A meta-analysis found that for every 12 months of breastfeeding, a woman’s risk of breast cancer decreased by 4.3%, independent of parity (13).

Breastfeeding also lowers the risk of ovarian cancer. By suppressing ovulation, lactation reduces the total number of ovulatory cycles, meaning less repetitive trauma to the ovarian epithelium and fewer opportunities for malignant changes. Women who breastfed for 12 months or more cumulatively had up to a 34% lower risk of ovarian cancer (14).

Emerging studies suggest that breastfeeding may also lower endometrial cancer risk, again through hormonal pathways that reduce lifetime estrogen exposure (15).

Many families choose to provide breast milk through exclusive pumping. The good news is that exclusive pumping still activates most of the same protective mechanisms that benefit maternal health.

When you pump consistently and maintain milk production, your body undergoes the same metabolic and hormonal processes that occur with direct breastfeeding:

• Hormonal regulation: Prolactin and oxytocin are still released, supporting milk ejection, stress resilience, and blood pressure regulation (16).

• Metabolic demand: Milk production itself—regardless of whether milk is removed by baby or pump—uses energy, glucose, and fat stores, supporting cardiovascular and metabolic health (5,17).

• Cancer risk reduction: Because pumping maintains lactation and suppresses ovulation, women who exclusively pump still experience the cancer-protective effects tied to hormonal changes and breast tissue remodeling (18).

Whether at the breast, at the pump, or a combination of both, your health is still supported through the physiology of lactation.

Another long-term advantage of breastfeeding is protection against osteoporosis and hip fractures later in life. While bone mineral density decreases during lactation due to calcium mobilization, recovery is rapid after weaning, and women who breastfeed often have higher bone density in midlife (19). This cycle of bone turnover may actually strengthen skeletal health over time.

Breastfeeding is often described as a gift to your baby. But it is equally a gift to yourself. The protective benefits—lowered risk of cardiovascular disease, improved metabolic health, and reduced cancer risks—help protect your health far beyond the nursing years.

Importantly, these benefits are dose-responsive but not all-or-nothing. Even a few months of breastfeeding contributes to long-term protection. For women who cannot or do not breastfeed, it’s essential to emphasize that breastfeeding is not the sole determinant of health. Genetics, environment, and lifestyle factors all play significant roles. But when breastfeeding is possible and supported, it provides powerful advantages that extend across a woman’s lifespan.

We often celebrate the benefits of breast milk for babies, but your health matters just as much! By understanding how breastfeeding impacts your long-term wellness, you can make empowered decisions about your feeding journey.

Breastfeeding not only supports your infant’s long-term health, but yours as well. And throughout your journey in womanhood.

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2. Schwarz, E. B., et al. (2009). Duration of lactation and risk factors for maternal cardiovascular disease. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 113(5), 974–982. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19384111/
   
   

3. Peters, S. A., et al. (2017). Breastfeeding and risk of cardiovascular disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Internal Medicine, 177(9), 1490–1499. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.121.022746
   
   

4. Uvnäs-Moberg, K. (1998). Oxytocin may mediate the benefits of positive social interaction and emotions. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 23(8), 819–835. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9924739/

5. Stuebe, A. M., & Rich-Edwards, J. W. (2009). The reset hypothesis: Lactation and maternal metabolism. American Journal of Perinatology, 26(1), 81–88. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0028-1103034
   
   

6. Natland, S. T., et al. (2012). Lactation and cardiovascular risk factors in mothers in a population-based study: The HUNT-study. International Breastfeeding Journal, 7(1), 8. https://internationalbreastfeedingjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1746-4358-7-8
   
   

7. Groër, M. W. (2005). Differences between exclusive breastfeeders, formula-feeders, and controls: A study of stress, mood, and endocrine variables. Biological Research for Nursing, 7(2), 106–117. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16267372/
   
   

8. WHO. (2013). Breast cancer: Prevention and control. World Health Organization.  https://www.who.int/cancer/prevention/diagnosis-screening/breast-cancer/en/
   
   

9. World Cancer Research Fund. (2025). Breastfeeding and cancer. World Cancer Research Fund.   https://www.wcrf.org/preventing-cancer/topics/breastfeeding-and-cancer/

10. Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer. (2002). Breast cancer and breastfeeding: Collaborative reanalysis of data from 47 epidemiological studies. Lancet, 360(9328), 187–195. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(02)09454-0
    
    

11. Russo, J., & Russo, I. H. (1997). Differentiation and breast cancer. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, 41(1), 11–19. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9567346/

12. Lyons, T. R., et al. (2011). Postpartum mammary gland involution drives progression of ductal carcinoma in situ through collagen and COX-2. Nature Medicine, 17(9), 1109–1115. https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2416
    
    

13. Victora, C. G., et al. (2016). Breastfeeding in the 21st century: Epidemiology, mechanisms, and lifelong effect. The Lancet, 387(10017), 475–490. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)01024-7
    
    

14. Danforth, K. N., et al. (2007). Breastfeeding and risk of ovarian cancer in two prospective cohorts. Cancer Causes & Control, 18(5), 517–523. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17450440/
    
    

15. Jordan, S. J., et al. (2017). Breastfeeding and risk of endometrial cancer: A systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. Cancer Causes & Control, 28(6), 657–666. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5473170/
    
    

16. Jonas, W., & Woodside, B. (2016). Physiological mechanisms, behavioral and psychological factors influencing the transfer of milk and the milk ejection reflex. Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia, 21(3-4), 117–124. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26232032/
    
    

17. Stuebe, A. M. (2009). The risks of not breastfeeding for mothers and infants. Reviews in Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2(4), 222–231. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2812877/
    
    

18. Chowdhury, R., et al. (2015). Breastfeeding and maternal health outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Acta Paediatrica, 104, 96–113. https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.13102
    
    

19. More C, Bettembuk P, Bhattoa HP, Balogh A. The effects of pregnancy and lactation on bone mineral density. Osteoporos Int. 2001;12(9):732-7. doi: 10.1007/s001980170048. PMID: 11605738. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11605738/