A new study from the University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA) found that women over the age of 50 who had breastfed their babies performed better on cognitive tests compared to women who had never breastfed, suggesting that breastfeeding may have a positive impact on postmenopausal women's cognitive performance, with long-term benefits for the mother's brain.

From the ScienceDaily press release:

"'While many studies have found that breastfeeding improves a child's long-term health and well-being, our study is one of very few that has looked at the long-term health effects for women who had breastfed their babies,'" said Molly Fox PhD, lead author of the study and an Assistant Professor in the UCLA Department of Anthropology and the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. "'Our findings, which show superior cognitive performance among women over 50 who had breastfed, suggest that breastfeeding may be 'neuroprotective' later in life.'"

"Key findings from the researchers' analysis of the data collected from questionnaires on the women's reproductive history revealed that about 65% of non-depressed women reported having breastfed, compared to 44% of the depressed women. All non-depressed participants reported at least one completed pregnancy compared to 57.8% of the depressed participants.

"Results from the cognitive tests also revealed that those who had breastfed, regardless of whether they were depressed or not, performed better in all four of the cognitive tests measuring for learning, delayed recall, executive functioning and processing compared to women who had not breastfed.

"Separate analyses of the data for the depressed and non-depressed groups also revealed that all four cognitive domain scores were significantly associated with breastfeeding in the women who were not depressed. But in the women who were depressed, only two of the cognitive domains -- executive functioning and processing speed -- were significantly associated with breastfeeding.

"Interestingly, the researchers also found that longer time spent breastfeeding was associated with better cognitive performance. When they added up all the time a woman spent breastfeeding in her life, they found that women who did not breastfeed had significantly lower cognitive scores in three out of four domains compared to women who had breastfed for 1-12 months, and in all four domains compared to the women who had breastfed for more than 12 months. Women who had breastfed the longest had the highest cognitive test scores."

Title: Women who breastfeed exhibit cognitive benefits after age 50.

In: Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health 2021; DOI: 10.1093/emph/eoab027

Authors: Molly Fox PhD, Prabha Siddarth PhD, Hanadi Ajam Oughli MD, Sarah A Nguyen MD, Michaela M Milillo BS, Yesenia Aguilar MS, Linda Ercoli PhD, Helen Lavretsky MD MS.

ScienceDaily press release: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211023122141.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmind_brain%2Fchild_development+%28Child+Development+News+--+ScienceDaily%29

Accepted manuscript: https://academic.oup.com/emph/advance-article/doi/10.1093/emph/eoab027/6380138