African American Women’s Breastfeeding Experiences

Abstract

The low rate of breastfeeding among African American women in the United States is a poorly understood, persistent disparity. Our purpose in this study was to gain an understanding of how African American women experience breastfeeding in the context of their day-to-day lives. The Sequential-Consensual Qualitative Design (SCQD), a 3-stage qualitative methodology aimed at exploring the cultural, personal, and political context of phenomena, was used to explore the experiences of African American women who felt successful with breastfeeding. An integration of qualitative content analysis and Black feminist theory was used to analyze the data. Themes that emerged from Stage-2 data analysis included self-determination, spirituality and breastfeeding, and empowerment. In Stage 3 of the study, participant recommendations regarding breastfeeding promotion and support initiatives for African American breastfeeding were categorized into three themes, including engaging spheres of influence, sparking breastfeeding activism, and addressing images of the sexual breast vs. the nurturing breast.

Facebook support for breastfeeding mothers: A comparison to offline support and associations with breastfeeding outcomes

“…Furthermore, only breastfeeding self-efficacy and breastfeeding attitudes remained significant predictors of intended breastfeeding duration within the regression model, which is consistent with other studies on breastfeeding intentions and duration. 24 , 43–45 The findings from this study therefore suggest that while Facebook support may be an important factor, based on the bivariate analysis, breastfeeding self-efficacy and breastfeeding attitudes are stronger predictors of breastfeeding outcomes.…”

“Real-world” effect of a peer counselor on breastfeeding outcomes in an urban prenatal clinic in the United States

“…Additionally, given that comfort and confidence are associated with breastfeeding continuation, but that in our study, PC support was not associated with improved comfort or confidence, future research can assess not only the individual ways in which a PC can enhance these feelings, but should also assess the more systemic or structural determinants of comfort and confidence. Previous authors have rightly advocated the importance of discussing sociocultural factors contributing to breastfeeding practices in African American women, such as historical and individual trauma, body image, and familial power structures, and we encourage continued efforts to elucidate and alleviate such factors [ 33 – 36 ].…”

Experiences of Racism and Breastfeeding Initiation and Duration Among First-Time Mothers of the Black Women’s Health Study

“…Breastfeeding initiation and breastfeeding duration are two separate but related constructs. Factors that influence a woman’s intention to initiate breastfeeding upon birth [42] may be different than factors that influence her ability to continue breastfeeding [14]. Studies have demonstrated that although a majority of women who give birth initiated breastfeeding, a majority also discontinued before they intended [43].…”

“…Research that limits breastfeeding barriers to either structural causes or to biological causes, without attention to upstream factors, limits the scope of possible interventions but also effectively dismisses the rich context in which Black women live. For example, the explicit acknowledgement to a historical context of intersecting oppression has generally been absent from breastfeeding research, dismissing a frame of reference for some Black women that may be critical to their self-valuation and self-definition [13, 14].…”