Presentation Time: 1:30-1:50
Home University: UNC-Chapel Hill
Research Mentor: Dr. Amanda Thompson, Nutrition/Anthropology
Program: McNair
Research Title: Who Helped You? Sources of Breastfeeding Support Among Predominantly Low-Income African American Women In North Carolina
Much literature identifies breastfeeding as one of the primary interventions for reducing infant mortality and improving women’s health globally. However, despite the existence and overall success of national breastfeeding intervention programs in the U.S., African American women persistently have lower breastfeeding initiation rates and duration and the highest rates of poor infant health outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the sources of breastfeeding support utilized by predominantly low-income, African American women in North Carolina. Using data from the Mothers and Others study, we investigated the relationship between maternal characteristics and the sources of breastfeeding support African American mothers reported using while inside the hospital and outside the hospital through bivariate analysis. In addition, the association between significant maternal characteristics and the sources utilized was tested using multiple linear regression. The results of this paper show that women use different sources of support inside and outside of the hospital. These sources vary by women’s marital status, income, amount of college education, and whether they previously had children.