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Low milk supply in new mothers linked to diabetes during pregnancy
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Women diagnosed with low milk supply in the first 3 months postpartum are significantly more likely to have had diabetes during their pregnancy vs. women with other lactation difficulties, according to recent findings.
In a case-control analysis of electronic medical records, Sarah W. Riddle, MD, and Laurie A. Nommsen-Rivers, PhD, both of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, analyzed data from mothers 90 days or less postpartum presenting for a first encounter at the medical center’s Breastfeeding Medicine Clinic between June 2011 and May 2013. Researchers defined cases as mothers with a diagnosis of “suppressed lactation” but without a diagnosis indicative of an infant latch or maternal nipple problem (n = 175); controls were defined as women diagnosed as having a latch or nipple problem (n = 226). Researchers also conducted a sensitivity analysis expanding cases to include all low milk supply diagnoses, and controls to include any diagnoses except low milk supply.
Researchers found that cases were more likely to have had diabetes (gestational, type 1 or type 2) during pregnancy (P = .004), a cesarean delivery (P = .01) or a history of infertility (P = .04), and showed a trend toward greater prevalence of polycystic ovary syndrome (P = .13). In the primary analysis, 14.9% of cases with low milk supply vs. 6.2% of controls had a history of diabetes during pregnancy (OR = 2.6; 95% CI, 1.3-5.2). Odds remained significant after adjusting for cesarean delivery, preterm birth, PCOS, hypothyroidism and infertility (adjusted OR = 2.4; 95% CI, 1.2-4.9). In the sensitivity analysis, 14.9% of 249 cases vs. 6.1% of 312 controls had diabetes in pregnancy (adjusted OR = 2.4; 95% CI, 1.4-4.3).
“In contrast to the assumption that cesarean delivery would mediate an indirect relation between diabetes exposure and low milk supply, cesarean delivery behaved as an independent risk factor, increasing the odds of low milk supply by 60%, but with negligible decline in the point estimate for diabetes,” the researchers wrote. – by Regina Schaffer
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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