Support groups for black moms help close the gap in breastfeeding rates
February 4, 2015Black mothers have the lowest breastfeeding rate compared to white and Latino women. However, local programs by black women helping other black women breastfeed seek to change this.
Several local programs across the country have been created to specifically help, educate and encourage black mothers to breastfeed their babies more often and for longer periods of time.
Oftentimes breastfeeding is viewed as a painful, taboo or little-understood practice within the black community. Writer Tara Pringle Jefferson recounts a particular exchange she had with family members at a barbecue when she informed them she was breastfeeding her firstborn. “The look of horror on their faces didn’t go away. ‘Ew! You do that?’ one of them asked.” Pringle Jefferson believes that negative attitudes toward breastfeeding in the black community lead to lower rates of breastfeeding.