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Focus Magazine

Focus Magazine

July/August 2007 (35/4)

African American Women and Breastfeeding

by Barbara L. Philipp

As the decades of the 20th century marched by, the United States of America slowly became a formula-feeding nation. Contrary to many assumptions and assertions, breastfeeding is much more than just a “nice thing to do.” According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, evidence-based research shows that human milk is the healthiest form of nutrition for all babies (with rare exceptions), and offers protection against many illnesses, including lower respiratory infections, bacterial meningitis, diabetes, lymphoma, chronic digestive diseases, and obesity. It also has been shown to reduce infant mortality rates; a 2004 article in Pediatrics reported that postneonatal infant mortality rates in the U.S. are reduced by 21 percent in breastfed infants.

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