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In this edition of EmpowHER's "HER Week In Health" they say time is money and in this week’s edition we’ll learn how that couldn’t be more true for women trying to breastfeed their children long-term. We’ll also learn why women are choosing career over husbands and that U.S. cholesterol rates may be on the decline, but women’s cholesterol is still higher than men’s.
Hi, I’m Bailey Mosier. This is your EmpowHER HER Week in Health.
They say time is money and in this week’s edition we’ll learn how that couldn’t be more true for women trying to breastfeed their children long-term. We’ll also learn why women are choosing career over husbands and that U.S. cholesterol rates may be on the decline, but women’s cholesterol is still higher than men’s. Have a look.
Pediatricians encourage new mothers to breastfeed their babies for at least six months, citing numerous health benefits to both mother and child. Breastfeeding proponents further argue that it costs nothing, but professors at the University of Iowa now are challenging that notion.
The team analyzed 1,300 first-time mothers in the U.S. who were in their 20s or 30s and who were employed in the year before their first children were born. They found that all experienced earnings losses after giving birth, but long-duration breast feeders experienced much steeper and more prolonged earnings losses than mothers who breastfed for shorter durations or not at all.
The researchers found it’s the more affluent mothers who can afford to breastfeed longer-term because they come from financially stable homes and marriages. Some are calling for federal legislation to compensate mothers for unpaid labor associated with this type of infant care, otherwise formula-feeding will continue to be the only realistic option for many women in the U.S. because they simply cannot afford to take that time away from work.
American women today receive 57 percent of all bachelors and 60 percent of all masters degrees. That’s a lot of smart women. That’s a lot of single women, too.
Researchers from the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Minnesota found the ratio of men to women dramatically alters women’s choices about career and family. When men are scarce, women delay having children and instead pursue high-paying careers.
But the irony is that, as women pursue more education and more lucrative careers, it will only get harder to find a husband because a woman’s mating standards keep increasing as she becomes more educated and wealthy, further decreasing the number of suitable suitors.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveyed 6,000 adults in 2009 and 2010 and found a 27 percent decline over 10 years in the percentage of adults with high cholesterol.
Only 13.4 percent of U.S. adults have high cholesterol, and even though totals are down across the board, women’s levels are higher than men’s. More than 14 percent of women have high cholesterol compared to 12 percent for men.
The CDC couldn’t be certain of the explanation for the downward trend, but believe better diet, more exercise and the increased use of prescription drugs to lower the risk of heart attacks may be part of the reasons why.
That wraps up your EmpowHER HER Week in Health. Join me here at EmpowHER every Friday as we recap the latest in women’s health.
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