The lack of or short
lifetime duration of breastfeeding typical of women in developed countries makes a major contribution to the high incidence of breast cancer in these countries.
Findings indicate that while there are signs of a decline in breastfeeding among certain groups in developing countries, there is also a marked increase in the prevalence and
duration of breastfeeding elsewhere.
The study revealed a significant association
between duration of breastfeeding and reduced risk of diabetes, even after all other possible risk factors were accounted for.
In this review, only 7 (41 %) of the 17 studies reported exclusive breastfeeding or formula feeding, and only 3 of those 7 studies (24, 33, 35, 40) could confirm that the
median duration of breastfeeding in their subjects was ≥ 4 mo, which is a length of time akin to World Health Organization recommendations (36).
Regarding duration of breastfeeding, more than one fourth of the initial 44.3 % had switched to bottle - feeding by the time the infant was 1 month old and only 13.0 % were breastfeeding by the time the infant was 6 months old.
Of concern, many residents both before and after the intervention disagreed with the statement that early supplementation is a cause of breastfeeding failure, although previous studies have clearly demonstrated this relationship.22, 23 This misconception will need to be corrected to maximize success and
prolong duration of breastfeeding.
When it comes to
duration of breastfeeding there is a research done by Katherine A. Dettwyler, (you can find her excellent book here), who looked at animals (their length of gestation, birth weight, growth rate, age at sexual maturity, age at eruption of teeth, lifespan, etc) to determine what the natural age at weaning would be in humans if it was not set by cultural standards?
Dr. Dettwyler, an anthropologist who has done extensive research into the natural age of weaning suggests that the
natural duration of breastfeeding among human, speaking biologically / physiologically, would be somewhere between 2.5 years and 7.0 years [2].
Approximately one - third of mothers in our analysis strongly valued exclusive breastfeeding, even though they have established intention to exclusively breastfeed; unfortunately, many of them still could not attain the
recommended duration of breastfeeding.
If breastfeeding protects against type 2 diabetes, it will then be important to examine the extent to
which duration of breastfeeding matters and whether this effect is explained by the protective effect of breastfeeding on the prevalence of obesity in adult life (9, 54).
This lack of proactive breastfeeding infrastructure may contribute to lower breastfeeding duration [15], although Bartington et al. found there was no increase in
duration of breastfeeding in a baby friendly hospital setting [16].