A new look at the complicated history of Black women and breastfeeding
Why Black women are less likely to breastfeed their babies by Page Leggett
D
espite the well-known benefits of breastfeeding – such as decreased incidence of asthma, diabetes, ear and upper respiratory infections, pneumonia and
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eczema – Black women are more likely to bottle-feed their babies than are white women. In a study of women who gave birth in 2015, 85% of white moms said they breastfed their babies at birth compared with 69% of Black moms. The reasons
are myriad, but perhaps the saddest dates back centuries. “Enslaved Black women were forced to serve as wet nurses for their masters’ wives,” said Ty McClain, a lactation consultant at a Charlotte neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The
