Not only is it safe for young mothers to breast-feed, they may be protecting their bones by nursing, a new study says. Because women who breast-feed lose bone density as they nurse, there's been concern that the bones of still-developing teen-age moms might be weakening if they breast-feed. Doctors at the University of California are the first research to look at how bones replenish themselves after a teen-age mother stops nursing. Bone mineral density decreases in mothers during breast-feeding but replenishes itself once the child is weaned, at least in adults. They decided to follow more than 800 women who had breast-fed while still teens. They found no signs of bone loss even three years after childbirth. They found there are hormonal changes, which take place after weaning, that allow the body to replenish the density lost during lactation. The doctors say the one weakness of the study is the data base did not quantify how long, or how exclusively the mothers breast-fed. They say any woman, especially nursing moms, should keep in mind that a good diet, with lots of calcium and exercise, builds strong bones.
The significance of this article is the breast-feeding process could kill the partials that produce calcium to make strong bones. The result would be a tremendous problem to our society, as we know it.
My opinion is this is an informative article that would bring fear to any nursing mother. There have been many nursing mothers that came out fine and this study says that was rare. It seems like science is making all these new discoveries that only put fear in the publics hearts.