Oct 08
11
Big Baby Equals Higher Risk of Breast Cancer?
Being a larger baby, that is, one that weighs more than the average baby and also may be longer than the average accepted size of babies, may actually increase your risk of breast cancer later in life. Or so one study has set out to prove there is a correlation. Why would there be a correlation between these two seemingly non-related facts though? I tried to think of a reason but could not, even racking my brains for something.
Apparently there is a thought that something that happens in the womb when a mother is pregnant with her child may add to an adult’s chances of getting cancer later in life. Particularly the length of the baby at birth is of interest in this study because that is where the strongest correlation is found between baby size and breast cancer later on in life in women.Â
The exact reason for the correlation, which has in fact been proven to exist in this latest study, is not clear at all at the moment, except for thoughts that like I said, this is related to something that obviously spurs growth in the mother’s uterus during the development of the fetus.
Could it all be a coincidence that one of the strongest linking factors between women studied with breast cancer is a higher birth weight and size, especially the length, as well as the girth of the head of the baby? Maybe, but statistics always prove to be consistent when the trial numbers are as large as they were for this study so I’m inclined to believe there is something to this strange correlation.Â
