Mississippi was selected as a pilot state in the national breastfeeding promotion campaign titled Loving Support Makes Breastfeeding Work; To reinforce the national project, the Mississippi WIC Breastfeeding Promotion Project Team developed a comprehensive program that included patient and family education, staff training, public awareness activities, health professional outreach, and partnership with the community. WIC staff cited staff training, community outreach, and peer counseling as the most beneficial activities.
To evaluate the effectiveness of an existing breastfeeding peer counseling program within the US, researchers conducted a randomized control trial, with peer counseling as an intervention. The proportion of mothers who initiated breastfeeding was significantly higher in the intervention group. These findings demonstrated that, in the US, peer counselors could significantly improve breastfeeding initiation and duration rates.
The goals for this study were (1) to identify interventions to increase the incidence, duration, and intensity of breastfeeding among women participating in WIC and (2) to design an evaluation plan to examine the implementation and effectiveness of these interventions.
This study involved conducting focus group discussions on breastfeeding beliefs and perceptions with low-income pregnant women and new mothers receiving services from WIC. Participants identified time, embarrassment, and pain as barriers to breastfeeding; discussed decision-making efforts regarding breastfeeding; identified cultural beliefs related to breastfeeding; and discussed the lack of care-provider support for breastfeeding.
This study assessed the impact of an educational breastfeeding intervention on the knowledge, attitudes, and perceived ability to access breastfeeding resources among Spanish-speaking Latino families making breastfeeding decisions. The results suggested that teaching a lactation class in Spanish to Latino women significantly increased their willingness to breastfeed. It also empowered them by increasing their belief that they could breastfeed, even if they worked or attended school; that they would not have a problem with insufficient milk; and that they would not need to limit their diet to breastfeed.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of the Loving Support Makes Breastfeeding Work; campaign on healthcare providers in Mississippi. This study showed that this national breastfeeding promotion had a positive impact on nurses; breastfeeding awareness and practices.
This study analyzed breastfeeding initiation rates among Michigan preteen and teenage mothers (ages 12 to 19) by demographics and health behaviors. The results showed that for white mothers, the strongest predictor of breastfeeding initiation was education beyond high school. Black mothers were less likely to breastfeed if they had multiparous births.
The authors interviewed a sample of staff members from the WIC Program about breastfeeding and their perceptions of WIC recipients; views on breastfeeding. The WIC staff reported that their WIC clients held a variety of opinions about breastfeeding, including cultural beliefs, the importance of family support, and experiences of pain during breastfeeding.
This study applied a social ecological framework to investigate reasons for lagging breastfeeding rates among African-American women. Results show that macro-level factors;such as the media, aggressive marketing of breast milk substitutes, welfare reform, hospital policy, and breastfeeding legislation; interact with micro-level factors to influence a woman's decision to breastfeed.
This study determined rates of breastfeeding advice given to African-American and white women by medical providers and WIC nutrition counselors. It also sought to determine whether racial differences in advice contributed to racial differences in rates of breastfeeding. Results indicated that self-reported racial identification did not predict a medical providers advice. However, being African American was associated with less likelihood of being given breastfeeding advice and greater likelihood of receiving bottle-feeding advice from WIC nutrition counselors.
