Breastfeeding does not predict the development of compassion in adulthood

What is it about?

We examined whether receiving breastfeeding or not in infancy predicts compassion development in later life. The sample included more than 1300 Finnish adults that were prospectively followed from infancy to adulthood over 29 years. The results showed that breastfeeding (whether received breastfeeding or not at all; or duration of breastfeeding in months) did not predict the development of compassion. No association was obtained although we had possibilities to control for a variety of potential confounders (mother’s gestational age; premature birth; birth weight; number of other children at home; parental mental disorder; parental relationship status; parental postnatal smoking; parental postnatal alcohol use; parenting behavior; and child’s externalizing behavior).

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Why is it important?

It has been suggested that breastfeeding is crucial for psychological bonding between the mother and child and for the socioemotional development of the child. Accordingly, mothers not being able to breastfeed their child (e.g. due to medical reasons, hospitalization, or adoption arrangements) are noted to experience anxiety or guilty due to feeding issues. Our findings provide hopeful evidence for all those mothers by showing that breastfeeding (or not) does not predict offspring's compassion development in adulthood.