Surprising results of a study found that the weight of a mother’s firstborn correlates to her risk of breast cancer later in life. Mothers whose babies were in the top fifth of birth weights had more than twice the risk for breast cancer as other mothers.
The study, to be released in the medical journal PLoS ONE, found that when babies weighed more than 8.25 pounds at birth, their mothers were 2.5 times as likely to develop breast cancer. The study controlled for other possible factors, including the mother’s birth weight, age, ethnicity, and use of hormones during pregnancy.
“We observed that women giving birth to large birth weight infants were at an increased risk of breast cancer,” said Dr. Radek Bukowski, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He observed that these women had “hormonal conditions favoring breast cancer development and progression.”
The researches in this study suspect that giving birth to large babies creates a hormonal environment that can lead to breast cancer later in life.
The cancer diagnosis rarely occurred within 30 years of giving birth, giving these women time to take steps to decrease their chances of developing breast cancer. It provides opportunities for early diagnosis and prevention measures.
Women who give birth to large babies have many options to prevent breast cancer. Some protective measures include breastfeeding, maintaining a healthy weight, eating well, exercising and breastfeeding.
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