We all know there are quite a few breastfeeding benefits. However, there’s now another added benefit to breastfeeding your little one. A new study published in the Public Health Nursing journal reports that nursing longer could help lower the risk of postpartum depression. Researchers from Florida Atlantic University and several other universities used a database of nearly 29,700 women in 26 states to examine breastfeeding and depression status. The study found that nearly 13 percent of the women were at risk of postpartum depression. However, women who were breastfeeding at the time of the study had a significant lower risk of postpartum depression than those who were not. The researchers also found a relationship between the length of breastfeeding and postpartum depression, specifically, as the number of weeks of breastfeeding increased, the risk of depression decreased.

This article was originally published in Spring 2024.