Study of Some Physiological and Biochemical Parameters in Women with Breastfeeding and Non-Breastfeeding in Erbil City

Abstract

Blood samples from one hundred healthy women (29-33 year) have been taken. The women were divided into 2 groups: group 1 including 50 women that exclusively breast-fed for 6 months, and group 2 composed of 50 women in whom lactation was inhibited with formula feeding.

The two groups were comparable in lipid profile, random blood sugar, serum calcium and phosphors, tumor markers, and testosterone hormone (P-value < 0.01). Low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and random blood sugar (RBS) were significantly less in the breastfeeding group (P-value < 0.01). The mean totals LDL-C were 56.01± 0.35 and 71.90 ± 0.43mg/dl in groups 1 and 2, respectively. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) was higher in the breastfeeding groups than in non-breastfeeding mothers (44.21±068mg/dl vs. 40.83±0.14mg/dl) but the difference was not statistically significant. Nevertheless, serum cholesterol, serum triglyceride, and serum very low density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL-C) were insignificantly lowers in breastfeeding group (95.37±1.02 mg/dl) in comparison to non-breastfeeding group (112.8±1.02 mg/ dl). Tumor marker were determined with chemiluminescent immunometric methods in each group via an automatic hormone analyzer. However, breastfeeding mothers have slightly less percentage of CA 15-3 and CA 125 than formula-feeding mothers (9.67 ± 0.071 U/ml and 9.79 ± 0.079 U/ml versus 12.84 ± 0.13 U/ml and 12.34 ± 0.14 U/ml, respectively), but the difference was not statistically significant.