Interesting in light of low rates of breastfeeding among black mothers.
I had a chat with the local la leche nazi when I had my youngest. She had had ONE, precisely ONE black mother who delivered at the busiest L&D unit in the nearest ‘big city’ who breastfed her baby over the past month. The rest bottlefed.
I hypothesize several reasons. Firstly, it’s not ‘convenient’ to breast feed the baby. That means you can only leave it with someone (like a mother, sister, cousin, boyfriend, whoever) for 2, mmmmmaybe 3 hrs max before you have to return. Or pump enough for the duration, also time consuming and inconvenient. Secondly, you return to fertility much sooner if you formula feed.
Just sayin’.
"According to the latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, breastfeeding rates improved nationwide in 2000-2008, and some of the greatest improvement was among black women. However, only about 59 percent of black mothers breastfed in 2008, compared to 80 percent of Hispanic mothers and about 75 percent of white mothers. For 2008 rates of breastfeeding at a baby’s first birthday, the number was about 23 percent overall but only 12.5 percent for black mothers. That low rate still marks a near doubling of rates among black mothers compared to the year 2000."
The above was from here.