Program seeks to increase breast-feeding among black women in District

Each week, the pregnant women sit in a conference room at a health clinic in Southeast Washington. With their hands protectively resting on their protruding stomachs, the women enrolled in the four-week class soak up information on the health benefits of breast-feeding.

This gathering at the East of the River Lactation Center on Good Hope Road is aimed at increasing breast-feeding among African American mothers living in Northeast and Southeast Washington and across the Anacostia River. Officials say those women have the lowest breast-feeding rates in the District.

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( Katherine Frey / THE WASHINGTON POST ) - Lactation consultant Lynnette Hafke shows an expectant mother how to express breast milk.

According to research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black mothers nationwide lag behind other racial and ethnic groups when it comes to breast-feeding. In a recent study, 54 percent of black mothers breast-fed their infants from birth, compared with 74 percent of white mothers and 80 percent of Hispanic mothers. Breast-feeding rates for all groups, including Asian and Native American mothers, drop after six months. But just 27 percent of African American mothers continued to breast-feed, compared with 43 percent of white mothers and 45 percent of Hispanic mothers.

Center director Sahira Long, a certified lactation consultant who is also president of the D.C. Breastfeeding Coalition, said the barriers that any mother would face in breast-feeding, such as lack of knowledge, are magnified among blacks in the high-poverty neighborhoods.

“There are myths that are passed on — that it is painful, or that it will be difficult to get the baby to go to anyone else than the mother,” Long said. “If that mother is the first to breast-feed in their family, then they won’t get the family or community support.”

Promotional efforts

Long, who is also a pediatrician, has been treating patients at the Good Hope Road clinic run by Children’s Health Center since 2004. It was her interaction with families that helped her see the need for breast-feeding awareness classes. She helped land a one- year, $163,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to get a full-time breast-feeding peer counselor, a part-time lactation consultant, part-time nutritionist, supplies and two other positions. District mothers receiving food and nutrition services from the USDA’s Women, Infants and Children program are the target group.

Nationally, WIC serves nearly half of the infants born in the United States each year, said Kevin Concannon, the USDA undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services. Mothers enrolled in the WIC program receive checks to purchase vitamin- and protein-packed foods and work with a nutritionist during their pregnancy and after the baby is born.

In recent years, Concannon said, WIC has increased its efforts to promote breast-feeding by offering an enhanced food package for women who exclusively nurse their children until the first birthday. The hope is that the incentive will help mothers choose breast-feeding rather than have WIC pay for food and formula, Concannon said. The WIC program also makes breast pumps available.