Breast-feeding is not only good for babies - it has lots of benefits for mums too

There are rafts of research out there on how much babies benefit from a mother’s milk, but now here’s a new twist – you can benefit from breast-feeding too.

One study has found that breast-feeding may help protect women from a particularly vicious type of breast cancer .

Another suggests that breast-feeding may act as a sort of “reset” button for metabolism after pregnancy, helping women with pregnancy diabetes to avoid becoming lifelong diabetics.

The findings ­complement earlier research showing that women who breast-feed have a lower risk of getting breast and ovarian cancers, Type 2 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.

Breast-feeding may also promote ­cardiovascular health.

“This is a win-win as it’s good for the baby too,” said Dr Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, professor of medicine at the University of California, US.

Dr Marisa Weiss, the report’s senior researcher and president of Breastcancer.org, said ­pregnancy and lactation are important steps on the breast’s decades-long road to maturation, with lactation triggering changes in milk duct cells that make the breast more resistant to cancer .

She said: “The breast gland is ­immature and unable to do its job – to make milk – until it goes through a full-term ­ pregnancy .

"Breast-feeding forces the breasts to grow up and make milk.”

Women who develop pregnancy diabetes are seven times more likely to develop diabetes after pregnancy.

They should be encouraged to breast-feed because it improves glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity.

Breast-feeding also improves fat metabolism, burns calories and ­mobilises the stores of fat gained in pregnancy.