NPR & Tell Me More tackle breastfeeding rates in the black community

On November 24th, 2009 guest host Jennifer Ludden at NPR’s Tell Me More hosted an interesting segment on breastfeeding rates among black women. She discusses the issue with author Kathi Barber*, journalist Jamila Bey, and television producer Dawn Porter. (transcript here) I embedded the clip at the bottom of the page.

This was a really nice segment! I appreciated the implicit support Jennifer Ludden gave to breastfeeding.

The segment started out noting that we are seeing a positive trend in the US of more mothers breastfeeding for at least some period of time during the first year of baby’s life. However, as we all know, the issue is much more nuanced that that. We’re still falling short as a society of the Healthy People 2010 goals for breastfeeding and the African American community continues to lag behind Caucasian and Latina communities.

Ms. Ludden begins with Kathi Barber -

Kathi Barber has long been a breastfeeding advocate. She brings us up to speed on where things were regarding breastfeeding a little more than a decade ago when she first began breastfeeding. At that time there was a lack of support groups, lack of breastfeeding information, and healthcare providers who didn’t even speak to their patients about breastfeeding because the assumption was that mothers would feed infant formula. Most importantly, she notes, there was no breastfeeding dialog happening in the black community.

Ms. Ludden then asks Jamila Bey if breastfeeding her son was ever a question for her.

Never!  As I listened to the interview I got the feeling that Ms. Bey is an awesome advocate of nursing in public. She covered the topic really well and I think her attitude of treating nursing like the weather (and dressing “appropriately”) is so matter-of-fact. I love that she calls herself a lactivist straight up with no apology! She also touched on a topic that I think is extremely important to unpack to increase breastfeeding rates period. The lack of support from male partners and the idea that our breasts belong to our partners and therefore we shouldn’t use them to feed our babies. She’s got her eye on that lovely example of the kyriarchy in action and apparently she has more than a few words to share there. We don’t get to hear them though because she sticks to the topic at hand. *yes, you are seeing my chagrin at really wanting to head down THAT derail for a while!*

Ms Ludden then asked Dawn Porter for her perspective on what Ms. Bey discussed.

Dawn Porter shared that her mom nursed her in secret in the 60′s. She also noted that African Americans received the same messages about class and modernity being linked to feeding infant formula for her grandmother’s and mother’s generation. I’m totally speculating here, and it seems to me that if you mix in a little 60′s counter culture rebellion then you may have an answer for why her mom nursed her even if that rebellion didn’t extend to doing so openly.

The group then tackled how work impacts breastfeeding rates in the black community.

The guests noted that many moms in the black community get deterred when considering how to continue breastfeeding after they return to work and either wean extremely early or never attempt to breastfeed at all. Jennifer Ludden noted that the type of job you have would impact how difficult it might be to pump at work. The guests then shared some of the difficulties they experienced at “white collar” workplaces.

Toward the end of the conversation they had an interesting discussion regarding a mother’s motivation to breastfeed and how crucial it is to have the resolve to breastfeed.

Finally, Kathy Barber noted that the federal breastfeeding legislation is still waiting to be passed.

All in all a pretty darn good breastfeeding discussion with some nice illustrations of success. I could have done without the silliness about explaining what a breastpump is to the male listeners.

I personally would have LOVED to hear  about  -

• Whether the barriers Kathi Barber noted when she began breastfeeding are being reduced in appreciable ways.
• Combination feeding recommended as an option for working moms.
• More illustrations of barriers experienced by waged workers to dove-tail with the barriers the guests personally experienced.
• It would have been really helpful, in my opinion, for listeners to know Kathy Barber’s organization, African-American Breastfeeding Alliance, (which had been mentioned specifically) has a website.

I highly recommend that you have a listen. There’s much more to the conversation than I share here.

* ‘The Black Woman’s Guide to Breastfeeding: The Definitive Guide to Nursing for African-American Mothers.‘

Tell Me More Segment (Embedded)

Tagged as: Breastfeeding, culture, Education, Lactivism, news