Just Two Months of Breastfeeding May Help Relieve Chronic Pain After a C-Section Delivery

Undeniably, delivering a baby is an extremely painful experience. Mothers who undergo a cesarean delivery bear the pain for months altogether. Experts suggest that the number of c-sec deliveries is rising due to a host of factors. Mothers who have recently delivered through a c-sec may take a sigh of relief as a new study enumerates the benefits of breastfeeding suggesting its practice can bring relief in c-sec induced chronic pain.  Breastfeeding has been linked with a host of benefits for women. Most studies have linked breastfeeding with a reduced risk of developing cancer. According to the latest research, women who breast-feed are around 11% less likely to suffer from endometrial cancer. Longer breastfeeding further lowered the risk factor. "Breastfeeding is the normal way of providing young infants with the nutrients they need for healthy growth and development. Colostrum, the yellowish, sticky breast milk produced at the end of pregnancy, is recommended by WHO as the perfect food for the newborn, and feeding should be initiated within the first hour after birth. Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended until the newborn turns 6 months old," WHOBreast milk provides ideal nutrition for the newborn and is also beneficial for the mother. Interestingly, you burn calories while breastfeeding, this can help in losing the post-pregnancy weight.
A team of Spanish experts have found that breastfeeding may also help relieve pain in mothers who have undergone a C-section. Chronic pain after C-section delivery, lasting for more than three months, affects around one in five mothers.
  

"These preliminary results suggest that breastfeeding for more than two months protects against chronic post-caesarean pain, with a three-fold increase in the risk of chronic pain if breastfeeding is only maintained for two months or less," said Carmen Alicia Vargas Berenjeno from the Hospital Universitario Nuestra Senora de Valme in Spain. Mothers who breastfed their babies for more than two months after delivery via Caesarean section were three times less likely to experience persistent pain, researchers found.

The details of the research were presented at the annual event Euroanaesthesia Congress 2017 in Geneva. Expert examined 185 mothers who delivered through a C-section and followed them from January 2015 to December 2016. The study concluded that nearly one in four (23 per cent) of the mothers who breastfed for two months or less still experienced chronic pain in the surgical site four months post their operation compared to just eight per cent of those who breastfed for two months or longer. Over half (54 per cent) of mothers who breastfed reported suffering from anxiety. It's possible that anxiety during breastfeeding could influence the likelihood of pain at the surgical site four months after the operation, the researchers noted.

"Our study provides another good reason to encourage women to breastfeed," Berenjeno added. For the study, the team followed 185 mothers who underwent a C-section between January 2015 and December 2016.Inputs from IANS