Breastfeeding moms face an array of challenges, even today. And for Black women, breastfeeding can be even tougher.
Historic implicit biases about Black women not being interested in breastfeeding can mean that Black mothers don’t get enough lactation help after giving birth. Forty-five percent of Baby-Friendly hospitals – those that have adopted a set of policies to ensure that their facilities are supportive of breastfeeding – are concentrated in cities in which Black people make up 3 percent or less of the population, the ACLU reported in 2019. Hospitals in communities with an above-average Black population are less likely to promote nursing than hospitals in other neighborhoods, the civil liberties group says.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black women also struggle to breastfeed successfully because they return earlier to work after giving birth and have less access to professional support than white people do.
