Amanda, Thanks for your thoughtful question. I am behind on my reading of posts so I hope this is not too late. Miriam Labbok has written a great article discussing the benefits of breastfeeding for the mother. In it she reviews 20 articles related to breastfeeding and breast cancer. Ten show a positive effect and ten do not.  She states however, "if the entire set of studies is examined, there is statistical strength in the fact that so many of the findings were in the direction of protectiveness.  In addition to those twenty, there is the one you mentioned by Newcomb (1999)(postmenopausal) and another by Furberg(both) (1999) that show a protectiveness. Thus, I believe from this research that we can say that there does seem to be an association between breastfeeding and premenopausal breast cancer and a weak association with post menopausal breast cancer.

Labbok, M. 1999 Health Sequelae of breast-feeding for the mother. Clinics in Perin 
26(2):491.
Furberg et al. 1999 Lactation and breast cancer risk. Int J Epid 28:396-402.
Newcomb et al 1999 Lactation in relation to postmenopausal breast cancer Am J Epid 150(2): 174-182.

Carol L'Esperance RN, MSN, IBCLC, Albuquerque, NM

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