by Claudia Boyd-Barrett posted in Parenting

Good news for breastfeeding moms: a new study shows nursing your child may lower your risk of developing uterine cancer.
Breastfeeding for at least 6 months, as well as nursing more than one child, could further reduce your risk of getting the disease, the study found.
The analysis, published this month in Obstetrics and Gynecology, looked at 17 studies involving more than 26,000 moms from the United States, Canada, Europe, China and Australia, including almost 9,000 women with uterine cancer. They found that women who had breastfed at least one child were 11 percent less likely to develop the cancer than women who had children but never breastfed.
When the researchers looked at the amount of time the women in the study breastfed, they found that breastfeeding for between 3 and 6 months correlated with a 7 percent reduced risk of uterine cancer compared to moms who never breastfed. Women who breastfed 6 to 9 months saw the 11 percent risk reduction, the study found. After 9 months, there appeared to be no further reduction in uterine cancer risk.
Breastfeeding more than one child appeared to reduce women?s chances of getting uterine cancer even further. For example, a woman who breastfed two children for 9 months each were 22 percent less likely to get uterine cancer than non-nursing moms, lead researcher Susan Jordan said.
Uterine cancer, also called cancer of the uterus or endometrial cancer, is the fourth most common can...