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Press Releases New York Presbyterian Hospital Columbia-Presbyterian Campus 161 Fort Washington Avenue New York, NY 10032 Contact: Karin Eskenazi or Ruth Flaherty (212) 305-5587 Office of Public Affairs SURE, BREAST-FEEDING’S GOOD FOR BABIES, BUT WHAT ABOUT MOM? Study at New York Presbyterian Hospital to Assess Breast-Feeding’s Effects on Mothers NEW YORK, NY, October 20, 1998 -- While it’s been well-established that breast-feeding is associated with a wealth of benefits for infants, very few studies have documented the effects-whether good or bad-on mothers. Researchers at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia-Presbyterian campus, are now seeking to fill this information gap with a new study designed to assess breast-feeding’s effects on the mother’s nervous system. Forty women will be enrolled in the study. In one session with researchers, the mothers will breast-feed their infants. In another session, they will bottle-feed. Physiological changes, such as differences in heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing, as well as psychological changes will be measured at both sessions. Women with babies less than six-months-old are eligible for the study if they are between ages 18 and 40, and are not smoking, pregnant, or taking any medications. According to Elizabeth Sibolboro Mezzacappa, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology in Psychiatry and the study’s lead investigator, “There’s an abundance of literature on the effect of breast-feeding on babies, but there’s very, very little on any effects on the mother. What exactly happens when mothers breast-feed? What changes take place in their bodies? That’s what we’re trying to determine.” While the results of previous studies have shown breast-feeding mothers to have decreased self-reports of stress and decreased hormonal response to stress when compared to bottle-feeding mothers, it remains unclear why this is so. The effects may be related to personality or situational differences between women who choose to breast-feed or bottle-feed. Or, the differences may be due to the physiological effects of breast-feeding, as the New York Presbyterian Hospital researchers hypothesize. “We think that there are important physiological changes--for example in heart rate and blood pressure-- that occur during breast-feeding,” says Dr. Mezzacappa. “It could be that changes occur in the brains of breast-feeding women so there isn’t a big response to stress. So, even if they’re exposed to stressful events, these women are able to continue to breast-feed because their bodies don’t react as intensely to stress. This “stress buffering” may also protect the health of the mother.” These changes may be related to the hormone oxytocin, which helps control the milk let-down that is necessary for breast-feeding. Oxytocin also has been shown to have positive effects on moods and emotions. And, it plays a role in regulating the cardiovascular system, particularly in response to stress. It may be possible, then, that breast-feeding causes positive changes in the cardiovascular system through the actions of oxytocin. If so, breast-feeding might be thought of as enhancing the mother’s health status as well as that of their baby. “If we can determine the actual physiological changes that occur in women during breast-feeding, we can offer better information to women making the choice to breast-feed or bottle-feed and also provide better healthcare to the new mother,” points out Dr. Mezzacappa.