Mothers who give birth in areas of high African-American concentration are less likely to receive support for breastfeeding, despite its many substantiated benefits for infants.
Reuters reports on the study:
Breastfeeding provides well-documented health benefits to infants and their mothers. But African-American women are about 16 percent less likely to nurse their newborns than white women, according to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The study of 2,727 American hospitals and birth centers sought to uncover the reasons for the racial disparities.
“What this study suggests is that hospital practices, not just women’s choices, beliefs or values, contribute to the observed racial disparities in infant feeding,” sociologist Elizabeth Armstrong told Reuters Health in an email.
Womens News discusses more of the statistics of the study:
The study, published last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that in neighborhoods where the black population is higher than average (above 12.2 percent) key practices that support breastfeeding are much less common. The biggest difference in practices included hospital efforts to initiate early breastfeeding, limited use of infant formula and rooming-in (keeping the mother and baby in the same room).
The study looked at the implementation of 10 recommended maternity care practices that support breastfeeding among around 2,600 maternity facilities across the country.
