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Women gain visceral fat during pregnancy. Studies examining the impact of breastfeeding on maternal body composition are inconclusive. We examined the extent to which breastfeeding was associated with visceral adiposity in a sample of US women. This was a cross-sectional analysis of 351 women aged 45-58 years, who were free of clinical cardiovascular disease and had not used oral contraceptives or hormone replacement therapy in the 3 months prior to enrollment in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN)-Heart Study (2001-2003). History of breastfeeding was self-reported. Computed tomography was used to assess abdominal adiposity. Among premenopausal/early-peri-menopausal mothers, those who never breastfed had 28% greater visceral adiposity (95% confidence interval (CI): 11-49, P = 0.001), 4.7% greater waist-hip ratio (95% CI: 1.9-7.4, P < 0.001), and 6.49 cm greater waist circumference (95% CI: 3.71-9.26, P < 0.001) than mothers who breastfed all of their children for ≥3 months in models adjusting for study site; age; parity; years since last birth; socioeconomic, lifestyle, and family history variables; early adult BMI; and current BMI. In comparison to women who were nulliparous, mothers who breastfed all of their children for ≥3 months had similar amounts of visceral fat (P > 0.05). In contrast, premenopausal/early-peri-menopausal mothers who had never breastfed had significantly greater visceral adiposity (42% (95% CI: 17-70), P < 0.001), waist circumference (6.15 cm (95% CI: 2.75-9.56), P < 0.001), and waist-hip ratio (3.7% (95% CI: 0.69-6.8), P = 0.02) than nulliparous women. No significant relationships were observed among late peri-menopausal/postmenopausal women. In conclusion, until menopause, mothers who did not breastfeed all of their children for ≥3 months exhibit significantly greater amounts of metabolically active visceral fat than mothers who had breastfed all of their children for ≥3 months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Mothers who deliver a low-birth-weight (LBW) infant may themselves be at excess risk for cardiovascular disease. We investigated whether older women who bore LBW infants had higher blood pressure, lipid, glucose, insulin, interleukin 6 (IL-6), and C-reactive protein concentrations, and pulse wave velocity compared to women with normal-weight births. Methods: Participants were 446 women with a mean age of 80 years and 47% black. Women reported birth weight and complications for each pregnancy. Analysis was limited to first births not complicated by hypertension or preeclampsia. Results: Women who had delivered a first-birth infant weighing less than 2500 g had a lower body mass index (BMI) compared with women with a normal-weight (≥2500 g) infant (26.7 versus 28.4 kg/m2; p = 0.02), but they had a larger abdominal circumference for BMI (97.9 versus 95.5 cm; p = 0.05). They also were marginally more likely to be administered antihypertensive medication (p = 0.06). After adjustment for BMI, race, and age, women with a history of a small infant had elevations in systolic blood pressure (p = 0.05) and greater IL-6 levels (p = 0.02) and were more insulin resistant (p = 0.05) compared with women with a normal-weight infant. Conclusions: These findings suggest that a history of LBW delivery identifies women with elevated cardiovascular risk factors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]