Abstract
ROSE held its first Breastfeeding Summit: Reclaiming an African American Tradition in Atlanta, GA, in July 2012. The aims of ROSE are (1) to find ways to improve access to breastfeeding support in the African American community, (2) to reclaim our breastfeeding experience, and (3) to work to reform healthcare through breastfeeding.
The gathering brought together a dream team of healthcare professionals and breastfeeding advocates, including former Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, who shared that it is important for every child to have a healthy start in life and that breastfeeding is an important part of that healthy start. Dr. Satcher reminded us that after several attempts, we now have healthcare reform that provides incentives for preventive services and support for community programs that support breastfeeding.
Dr. Michal Young discussed breastfeeding as the first food and the first immunization and stated that breastmilk is the best thing, next to a mother's love, that a mother can give to her baby. She provided us with a brief history of how and why African American women turned away from breastfeeding during the Wars because of working outside the home and how supplementation became so prominent. Dr. Young discussed how the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is a big force in promoting breastfeeding through education.
A startling and thought-provoking message was provided when Table for Two showed pictures of college students eating in the bathroom to illustrate the lack of public spaces that accept and encourage women to breastfeed. Baby-Friendly hospitals were discussed by Delvecchio Finley, CEO of one hospital just designated in California through the new 4-D pathway. He described why it is important for hospitals to become Baby-Friendly. Northside Hospital in Atlanta delivers 18,000 babies a year, more than any other hospital in the United States, and they have 45 lactation consultants. Their nurse manager described their efforts to support breastfeeding mothers. Other speakers promoted and discussed working with fathers, grandmothers, and siblings and culturally effective encouragement in churches with a minister and Dads 101 course provided by fathers. A cultural anthropologist discussed racism and breastfeeding.
Dr. Flora Ukoli described her research with medical students in Tennessee on obesity and breastfeeding, with barriers both real and perceived discussed by pregnant and breastfeeding mothers of newborns and toddlers, including public breastfeeding (hard to do), the need to talk with other breastfeeding women, the few positive images of African American mothers nursing, mean things people say to breastfeeding moms, access to meeting in the community, and the need to see other African American mothers breastfeeding.
Day 2 of our summit consisted of action planning; many organizations worked together to discuss what changes they could make in their own practices and what ROSE could do to effect breastfeeding in the short term. We have to find out what is already out there, collaborate, and make small events bigger through social media. Tremendous connections have been made over the last year.
We are endeavoring to establish a national organization whose title and goal is “Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere” with culturally specific information regarding breastfeeding in our community. Participants will use their knowledge to provide culturally effective encouragement, support, and clinical care so that a higher number of African American women will choose to breastfeed their babies.