I read somewhere that bf rates are lower for

[~Megan~]

minorities and lower income women.
When I think about it none of my black friends bf. I was talking to a childless friend of mine about it recently. She was really uncomfortable with it. No one she knew had bf either.
Do you know any minorites that bf? Do most of them ff?

It seems sad to me that certain ethnic groups would pressure their friends and family to ff.

[Elphaba]

okay, first, i have to preface this by saying that i am white and i don't have many friends of color. that's embarrassing to put in print, but that's a whole other issue.
anyway, i have one black friend who is a mother. she nursed for a little while, but her job basically destroyed the nursing relationship. we worked for a large evil company, 12+ hour days, 6 days a week, and she was sent away for a week when her son was only 4 months old and bringing him was not allowed. he'd been getting formula pretty regularly before that, but that trip killed the milk supply.
another black woman i have worked with (different company) told me she was going to nurse for 5 years! she was exaggerating, but i feel pretty confident that when she does have kids all the stuff we talked about will stick with her and she will nurse. oh, and the reason she said she was going to nurse for 5 years was my comment that my period didn't return until shoshanna was 16 months old. i find that's always a big selling point.

[mamapixie]

Well, when I had Jonny, I was one of 6-7 women in the hospital at the time, and it was only me, and another white women who were breastfeeding You could tell because when we all brought the baby's to the nursery, there bottles were in the bassinet with them, but in my bassinet, and the other woman's bassinet, we both had a note stuck in there saying "no artificial nipples, formula or bottles". And whenever I would see a mom breastfeeding on base, it was always a white woman(not that I saw many, but the few I did see were white) And the thing with Army bases, whites are usually the minority...

[Clarity]

If I had an hourly job, and a lot of life stresses it might interfere with my bf relationship too. I think economics does affect it. Long hours of childcare, no place to pump, using public transport. If I had a unpredictible schedule and erratic childcare, I can see that FF might seem easier.

Across races, I think some families had a perception, when ff became popular that bf was only for the poor. Even people here have mentioned their famlilies have made remarks like that. So perhaps in some palces that it still stronger than in others.

[eilonwy]

I'm not white, and I nurse any time, any where my ds wants to.

I think maybe fewer minorities attempt to nurse their babies in counties where WIC is not terribly supportive. Around here, even 15 and 16 year old girls having babies usually nurse for the first month or so, because WIC hands out papers telling them about how their formula won't last out the month and even if you're working or going to school you can pump. They even gave me a PIS when I told them I wanted to go to school full time. (That never ended up happening, but still..!)

The area I live in is about 55% hispanic, and while I've only ever seen one black woman NIP, I personally know several non-white people who've nursed their children for at least a month or two. Every breastfeeding pamphlet I recieved from WIC was also available in Spanish, and there were low-literacy English and Spanish versions, too.

Maybe they just need more encouragement to NIP.

[menudo]

I am white but when I was a WIC bf Peer Counselor Ilived and counseled in my neighborhood which was over 95% non white (I hate these damn labels). But it was also largely immigrant. Problems we had is many immigrants from Latin America, Africa, etc. grew up breastfed and this was the NORM where they grew up but felt the yshould FF b/c it was "more American" and easier, etc. It was BADDDDD! We had lengthy discussions on why it was frowned upon in "Black American" communiutes and personally I felt the ywere the same as the rest of America: oversexualization of the breast, breastfeeding equates to lack of money, and more MYTHS, MYTHS, MYTHS! Needless to say almost all the other breastfeeding Moms I knew them were NOT white...

I now live in a primarily "white" area where people don't ever consider breastfeeding, they do not see why they should bother.

[Melaniee]

Wow. I should have added my doll post on to this thread...sorry.

Do you think they do not BF b/c it makes them think they seem poor b/c of it? I read somewhere that was the reason some people's elders frowned upon in b/c in their day only poor people HAD to BF.

[Melaniee]

Wow. I should have added my doll post on to this thread...sorry.

Do you think they do not BF b/c it makes them think they seem poor b/c of it? I read somewhere that was the reason some people's elders frowned upon in b/c in their day only poor people HAD to BF.

[LunaMom]

Hmmmmm, interesting thread. Come to think of it, every time I have seen a mom NIP, the mom has been white. On the other hand, my county was recently reported to be one of the most segregated places in the country (I think it was 74% segregated, which I take to mean that 74% of neighborhoods were mostly one race or ethnic group), so maybe that's just because I see way too many white women! Plus the fact that bf isn't all that popular around here, either, so I don't see too many women of ANY color NIP...

[AnnaReilly]

That's really sad... I don't know very many people with kids AT ALL so I can't say how many people I know who breastfeed. But when I was in the hospital after Cecelia was born they had a breastfeeding class (the only group class scheduled for the 3 days I was there) and they had a Spanish interpretor. There were about 10 moms and only 3 were white. I have no idea how many more moms there were in the hospital or how many were breastfeeding though to put that group into context.

[mama_kass]

The reason bf'ng is mostly practiced by rich is due to education. More educated women bf. It is just a fact that most rich women are white. (This in itself is a huge discussion as to why this is and how it can change)

Then there are cultural and religious reasons. For many hispanic, and middle-eastern families it is unacceptable for a women to NIP. I mean even to bf in front of your husband! It is very difficult to stay cooped up in a house until your baby weans.

Also, it is a fact that the majority of unwed mothers are black. (this is not my opinion, but an unfortunate fact, so let me clarify that this is not a judgement) Since they are unwed most have no choice but to work. They may have to work in a place where pumping is very difficult or impossible depending on the laws of the state and the company.

I am white, but I am poor, and was a highschool drop-out. Making me a minority and unlikly to bf. The reason that I have prevailed is this. Although I am poor this is by choice. If I were working my family would no longer fall into the poor category. Although I am was a high school drop out, I am a self educated person.

There needs to be more education reaching poor women. If women are given support, and education they will make the right choices.

[Elphaba]

mamakass, actually middle eastern women can and do nurse in public, even in areas where they are not allowed to show any other body parts, they accept nursing in public as a part of life.
and i have never heard of hispanic women (or any other women) being discouraged from nursing in front of their husbands. do you have any sort of link or reference i can go look at. i would be really interested in reading about that.
thanks!

[Quirky]

Here is an article in the Washington Post about this awesome woman, Kathi Barber, who has started the African American Breastfeeding Alliance: read it while you can, I think they only leave the articles up free for a week!

link

I'm going to post the resources information for anyone who doesn't read the article:

African-American Breastfeeding Alliance, Baltimore, 410-225-2006; help line: 877-532-8535, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday; www.aabaonline.com. Contact the main office for information about meetings in the Washington area.

The National Women's Health Information Center, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, provides information about breast-feeding at www.4woman.gov or by calling 800-994-WOMAN.

From the article:

In a study published in Pediatrics in 2001, 148 of 178 black women surveyed about their reasons for never breast-feeding said they simply "preferred bottle-feeding." Job circumstances and personal health or physical problems had little or no impact on their decisions, they indicated. Even after taking into account income, education and marital status, race was still an important predictor of the decision to breast-feed, the study found.

Barber and other breast-feeding advocates offer several theories for the pattern: Black mothers have fewer role models who know much about breast-feeding. In many cases, their own mothers and grandmothers didn't do it -- and question why they would want to. Husbands or boyfriends may be ambivalent. Myths also persist about breast-feeding's being inherently painful or nearly impossible to keep up once new mothers return to work. While none of these attitudes is unique to the black community, Barber admits, she says their combined force there has been unusually strong.

[dentente]

I have two friends who are women of color and they both nursed all their babies. They don't know each other either. One friend BFed her kids for 4 months each, the other has one child and bfed him for 19 months. Both are well-educated professionals and both say they are the first women in their families to BF their kids in a generation.

Denny

[mama_kass]

Originally posted by mama_kass
[B

Then there are cultural and religious reasons. For many hispanic, and middle-eastern families it is unacceptable for a women to NIP. I mean even to bf in front of your husband! It is very difficult to stay cooped up in a house until your baby weans.

[/B]

What I meant is that in many cultures not limited to hispanic and middle-eastern and including our own it is taboo to NIP and/or in front of men. I spoke to a women who breastfed for only a few weeks. She said she stopped because it was unacceptable for her to nurse in front of men including her own husband and it was too confining.

[lemon]

Just wanted to point out the obvious: we have a lot of awsome nursing moms of color here at MDC.

Also, Kathi Barber is Mothering's nursing expert: http://mothering.com/experts/barber.shtml

I think she might be newish, she doesn't have many questions yet. But I'm glad she's here!