Study Shows That Race Affects the Breastfeeding Decision

"The encouragement of breastfeeding needs to be a priority for physicians and health care providers in furthering the goal to promote child health," state the authors of a study published in the August issue of Pediatrics.  The authors examined the effects of maternal and birth characteristics on the decision to breastfeed and the relationship of breastfeeding to racial differences in infant mortality.  In a sample taken from the National Survey of Family Growth, Cycle V, 1995, 1,088 women with a child 18 months or younger were surveyed about maternal characteristics such as feeding preferences, demographic and socioeconomic factors, smoking habits during pregnancy, religion, marital status, whether the child was wanted, and desire for more children.  Additional data were collected on birth characteristics such as birth order, type of delivery, and birthweight.  The authors maintain that many factors are involved in the decision to breastfeed and that "white mothers were more likely to have characteristics associated with the decision to breastfeed -- higher income and education, marriage, living in the West, and wanting their [child's] birth -- than were their black counterparts."

Highlights from the study include the following:

*  Approximately 57% of the mothers breastfed their infants (65% for white mothers compared with 30% for black mothers).
*  Based on all births, of those children who were breastfed, white infants averaged 5.25 months of breastfeeding and black infants averaged 3.38 months.
*  52% of the black mothers reported less than $16,000 in total household income and 57% were single and never married.  Figures for white mothers were 23% and 11%, respectively.
*  Foreign-born women were about 75% more likely to have breastfed their child than U.S.-born women.
*  Mothers who did not want more children were more than 1 1/2 times less likely to breastfeed their child than mothers who did want more children.
*  Of mothers who indicated a "preference for bottle-feeding" over breastfeeding as the reason for not breastfeeding, 83% were black and 62% were white.

The authors conclude that their findings "do suggest that breastfeeding explains the racial difference in infant mortality as well as does low birth weight.  Thus, by increasing breastfeeding among black women, the racial gap in infant mortality should narrow -- a gap that is currently (1997) about 1.3 times higher for blacks than whites" (a figure based on U.S. Census Bureau statistics).  The authors recommend that health care professionals emphasize the benefits of breastfeeding to the black community.

Forste R, Weiss J, Lippincott E.  2001.  The decision to breastfeed in the United States:  Does race matter?  Pediatrics 108(2):291-296.

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Cindy Curtis, RN, IBCLC   >^..^<
mailto:[log in to unmask]
http://www.breastfeedingonline.com

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