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My Quest to Find the Reasons Behind Low Black Breastfeeding Numbers
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
One of the biggest mysteries that plagues my mind day in and day out is the reason behind low breastfeeding rates among black women. What I'm finding is there is no easily blamed lone culprit, but instead we find a tight-knit mesh of historical racism, wet nursing, slavery, current and past socioeconomic factors, and cultural trends that play into exacerbating the dangerously low breastfeeding numbers we see today. [ Picture: A free lunch / Geo. Barker, photographer, Niagara Falls, New York. c1890. ]
When I first started this blog I wanted to blame slavery and wet nursing alone, but as you can see from my post on Sunday slave women did indeed nurse their children, although I do not know how widespread a practice it was. I suspect, however, that more slave women nursed their own children than we even realize. In fact, in Louis Hughes' autobiography called Thirty Years a Slave: From Bondage to Freedom (1898), he also mentions "sucklers" who were "women with infants".
Inch by inch I'm slowly putting the pieces together through documented research that explain these low numbers without having to read all about it in a book dedicated to the subject. I'm a bit of a sleuth, so I enjoy the thrill of chasing this mystery down myself. I'm trying to figure out where, when and how black women became disconnected with breastfeeding.
When I first became a mother I remember trying to answer this same question then. Nine years ago I read a book that said black women wanted the same economic privileges as white women, so in the early twentieth century most of them moved from nursing to formula. It was a way of essentially keeping up with the Joneses. But later in the century while white women moved from bottle back to breast, black women unfortunately stayed with the bottle. But why?
Here are a few more pieces of the puzzle I found today that answer some of my questions.
I've been wondering about pro-breastfeeding campaigns that date to the early 1900s. Here is a WPA poster that dates from September 2, 1938. Clearly this campaign wasn't designed for black women in those days, but they did exist and that's all I wanted to confirm. If there's one, there's more.
I also found out that breastfeeding promotion for WIC moms wasn't in place until 1989 based on two Congressional Reports (linked above) I found, although I must admit, I may be a tad wrong about the date. I have to do more digging.
Labels: breastfeeding history, issues, research, wet-nursing
posted by Jennifer James @ 7:45 AM,
4 Comments:
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At June 5, 2007 12:47 PM,
Leah said...
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I am so glad you're doing this research and posting info about it. What a fascinating topic.
One interesting thing I've noticed - I live on the south side of Chicago, in a somewhat mixed but still fairly white neighborhood. It's a very pro-breastfeeding area as well, from what I can tell - there are a bunch of different LLL groups, I get nice comments all the time from many different people, etc. But I get a TON of comments from black women about how wonderful breastfeeding is. It may be because my huge chunky baby is obviously breastfed. :) But I have had many black women (like maybe 10? or 15?) come up to me and ask if I'm breastfeeding and say that they are/did as well. I'm not sure if it's because it's a relatively well-to-do area of the south side? But it has been really nice for me to see especially in light of your research. -
At June 5, 2007 1:10 PM,
Jennifer James said...
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Hi Leah. That's a fascinating comment. So, maybe there is a huge jump/dip in black breastfeeding rates between socioeconomic classes. I'm sure that's probably the case, but whenever we get stats it's always for all black women. Okay...I've got some hunting to do ;)
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At June 5, 2007 1:14 PM,
Fat Lady said...
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Thank you so much (how many times can I thank you for what you write on this blog?) for providing the historical information you turn up. It's amazing to me to read these little tidbits.
I think you're right, that there are wide and complex reasons, historical, societal, emotional, educational, etc., for why so few Black women breastfeed.
On thing that strikes me is that, often, fostering independence, self-sufficiency in children is something that has a high priority in the Black community. We are quick to want to make sure that our kids can "handle themselves." Children tend not to be coddled or "babied" because it's seen as vital, I think almost a part of their survival, that they learn to be tough.
Obviously, there are all kinds of historic and societal reasons for this, but I can't help but wonder if this attitude - that Black women feel they have to instill a toughness in their children - contributes to the lack of breastfeeding. And particularly a reluctance to breastfeed beyond a couple of weeks or months.
I know that in my own experience I've had other black women accuse me of "babying" or over-indulging my daughters by nursing them. And there is always this implication that by nursing them (as well as by cuddling them, carrying them and fussing over minor bumps and scrapes) that I am making them weak and spoiled. That my children will grow up to dependent on me, and without the internal fortitude to survive in the world.
Of course, nothing could be further from the truth - nursing, and nurturing babies/children makes them stronger.
But I wonder if this misguided and deeply ingrained belief is one of the bigger barriers to Black breastfeeding because it puts nursing in a position of being perceived as something almost detrimental to the long-term well-being of a child. -
At June 5, 2007 1:21 PM,
Jennifer James said...
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Hi fat lady. Hmmm...I never thought of that in the scope of lower breastfeeding rates -- good point. What I'm searching for now is black motherhood resources from the late nineteenth, early twentieth century. I think that's where we'll find A LOT of answers. And I think because so many black women were domestics we didn't have time to mother and so we were forced to push our children into independence too fast. That sentiment has obviously trickled down to today.
