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Updated: Aug 15, 2026

Assessing Cellular Stress and Inflammation in Discrete Oxytocin-secreting Brain Nuclei in the Neonatal Rat Before and After First Colostrum Feeding
09:12

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Published on: November 14, 2018

Feeding upon awakening in breastfeeding and bottlefeeding mothers does not affect the awakening cortisol response

Mai Thanh Tu1, Claire-Dominique Walker, Sonia J Lupien

  • 1McGill University, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Douglas Hospital Research Center, Montreal, Canada, H4H 1R3.

Stress (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
|October 21, 2005
PubMed

An acute breastfeeding stimulus is generally followed by a transient decrease in cortisol levels in mothers. It is currently not clear whether breastfeeding upon waking up would affect the awakening cortisol response (ACR), a significant increase in salivary cortisol levels occurring within 30-45 min after awakening. In the present study, we measured the amplitude and stability of the ACR in response to infant feeding in women who were exclusively bottle-feeding (n = 16), or breastfeeding (n = 13) or feeding their child solid food (n = 12). The results show that the type of infant feeding did not affect the amplitude and stability of the ACR. Given that the ACR has been reported to reflect physical and psychological well-being, our finding that infant feeding upon waking up might not be a confounding factor in ACR studies on the postpartum population represents valuable methodological information.

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