Breastfeeding Awareness and Empowerment (BAE): A Black Women-Led Approach to Promoting a Multigenerational Culture of Health.

Rebecca Duncan,Meg Kawan,Aleigha Mason,Jabina Coleman,Shawana Moore,Christy Santoro,Meghana Atre,Aparna Kumar,Sharon Herring

doi:10.3390/soc12010028

Abstract

Critical gaps in the U.S. healthcare system perpetuate adverse reproductive health outcomes for Black people. Grounded in reproductive justice and trauma-informed care, Breastfeeding Awareness and Empowerment (BAE) has developed a program titled BAE Cafe to directly address these gaps by providing community-based lactation and perinatal mental health support. A literature review identified key programmatic gaps, namely, access to knowledge relevant to troubleshooting breastfeeding, peer support, community support and healthcare system support, and system-level factors that impede families and communities from accessing lactation support. This paper describes BAE Cafe through a group process observation and participant survey. The observation of groups highlighted the core elements of the BAE Cafe model: knowledge, support and mental health support in a peer driven format. Participant survey feedback was overwhelmingly positive and highlighted the critical importance of lactation support for Black women by Black women and BAE's role in participants' decisions to continue breastfeeding. BAE Cafe is a replicable, scalable, peer-driven and low-barrier intervention that has the potential to improve outcomes for Black families. Additional research and investment are now needed to assess large-scale implementation to reduce disparities and address health inequity across different contexts and settings.

Highlights

Despite the wealth of supporting evidence for the imperative recommendations made by the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics regarding breastfeeding and human milk as optimal first food, breastfeeding rates for initiation and continuation among Black childbearing families across the United States continue to be significantly low when compared to national statistics for all groups [5,6]
We have demonstrated that Black families feel supported in meeting their lactation goals when program models acknowledge the impact of systemic racism on parenting, center their lived experience and uplift the Black breastfeeding experience
Resources must be directed toward tailored, comprehensive designs that meet the needs of Black families to combat the critical gaps in the United States healthcare system that fail to address systemic racism and disproportionately perpetuate preventable, adverse reproductive health outcomes for Black people

Summary

Introduction

After years of continuing to miss the mark, the Surgeon General formally recognized the significance of this public health crisis in 2011 and released a national call to action to address the prevailing needs [2]. Public health experts recognized persistent racial disparities in breastfeeding rates, and reported the multiplicative implications for both maternal and early childhood health outcomes that widen across the lifespan [3,4]. Despite the wealth of supporting evidence for the imperative recommendations made by the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics regarding breastfeeding and human milk as optimal first food, breastfeeding rates for initiation and continuation among Black childbearing families across the United States continue to be significantly low when compared to national statistics for all groups [5,6]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion