Black & Breastfeeding

Being that Black Breastfeeding Week is coming up I wanted to make a post about black women and breastfeeding. I can say that out of the mom's I know 2 of them breastfeed. Compared to other races, breastfeeding in the black community is lower. I'm sure other moms out there who breastfeed know the struggle when you start that journey, as well as continuing through the cluster feedings, growth spurts and sleep regression. It seems like there isn't enough motivation and support for black women to breastfeed. Since I've started my breastfeeding journey the past 7 months I've had great support from my family and friends even other moms in breastfeeding groups . The hospital I had my daughter at was very supportive of my breastfeeding, in fact they're a very baby friendly hospital that doesn't have nurseries because they have all newborns with their mothers, they never separate the baby and Mom. When I was pregnant I knew that I wanted to breastfeed and having the support from my family to my nurses in the hospital was amazing. Unfortunately, certain hospitals in black communities don't fully support breastfeeding, the reason behind that is up in the air, but according to The Huffington Post in 2010 62% of black babies were breastfed compared to the 79% of white babies who were breastfed. It's unfortunate that the rates for breastfeeding in the black community is low, I want to encourage any mom's who are unsure about breastfeeding or feel like they don't have the support to know that you have mine!. Really, breastfeeding needs encouragement and support that's how I've gone this long with doing it. You can breastfeed as long as you want to and know that you'll always have support. Being that in today's society black people are sometimes viewed negatively it's important to bring awareness to something positive and that can help uplift mothers to breastfeed; increase and grow the statistic of us breastfeeding. Never feel ashamed for feeding your baby anywhere, I feed my daughter when I'm out with her and I've become more confident when it comes to feeding her in public because some moms are told to cover or to go else where. I won't be made to feel ashamed or be told that breastfeeding is inappropriate, it's natural dogs, cats, bears, and cows do it and when we do it's not right. There are breastfeeding laws and they protect us!. When you have other mom friends who breastfeed it encourages you to do the same.