胖妈妈哺乳期较短

Overweight and obese women are less likely than normal-weight women to keepbreastfeedingtheir infants for six months or longer, a study from Australia shows.

Dr. Wendy Hazel Oddy of the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in Perth and colleagues looked at 1,803 children and their mothers participating in a large pregnancy study. Eighteen percent of the women were overweight or obese before becoming pregnant.

After the researchers adjusted for factors including socioeconomic status and years of education, they found that women who were overweight or obese were less apt to attempt breastfeeding at all and those that did were less likely to continue breastfeeding.

Obese women were about twice as likely to have breastfed for less than two months or less than four months, while overweight women were 52 percent more likely than normal weight women to have stopped breastfeeding before two months, and 62 percent more likely to have stopped before four months.

Overall, the researchers found, overweight or obese women were 76 percent more likely to stop breastfeeding before their infants were six months old than their normal weight peers.

A number of factors could help explain the findings, the investigators say. For example, excess weight may change a woman's hormonal profile, making sustainedlactationmore difficult, or it may be harder for an infant to "latch on" to breast tissue if the mother is overweight or obese.

The researchers also report that overweight and obese women were more likely to have pregnancy complications andC-sectionsthan normal-weight women.

据澳大利亚的一个研究表明，与正常体重的女性相比，体重超标和肥胖的女性对她们的孩子进行六个月或更长时间母乳喂养的概率较小。

在一项大规模的妊娠期调查中，佩斯Telethon儿童健康研究所的温迪·黑泽尔·奥迪医生和他的同事对1803对母亲和孩子进行了研究调查。其中有18％的妇女在怀孕之前就偏胖甚至肥胖。

综合社会经济地位和受教育年限等因素的影响，研究人员发现体重超标或肥胖的女性进行母乳喂养的可能性相对较小，而且其中正进行母乳喂养的女性继续下去的可能性也较小。

调查发现，肥胖女性在孩子不满两个月或四个月就停止母乳喂养的概率是正常体重女性的两倍左右，超重女性在孩子满两个月前停止母乳喂养的概率要比正常体重女性高52％，四个月前停止母乳喂养的概率高62％。

研究人员发现，总体来看，超重或肥胖的女性在孩子满六个月前停止母乳喂养的概率要比正常体重女性大76％。

研究人员说，这些发现可用很多因素来解释。比如，体重超标可能会改变女性的激素水平，从而使哺乳期长度受到影响；或者是，婴儿吮吸超重或肥胖妈妈的乳房可能有些困难。

此外，研究人员称，体重超标和肥胖女性患妊娠期并发症及剖腹产的几率要比正常体重的女性大。

Vocabulary:
breastfeed: 母乳喂养
lactation: 哺乳期
C-sections: 剖腹产