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Cee & Dee | LGBT[Q]+ Family Advocacy
@ladyboisandbabyboy

7,963 followers

I didn’t grow up seeing Black women nurse their babies, but no one told me why. Part of the reason for consistently lower breastfeeding rates among Black women stems from the legacy of slavery, when enslaved Black women were forced to breastfeed their owner’s children at the expense of their own.  With generations being stripped of the ability to breastfeed, many Black folx today don’t have relatives with breastfeeding experience. My mother did not nurse me, her mother did not nurse her. My maternal grandmother told me she chose formula for her babies because it was a sign of her financial standing…kind of like her piano or her grandfather clock. 🤯 That made me think a lot…about a lot. It also made me more determined to consider no one else but me and my baby when making decisions about when, where, how and for how long to nourish them this way. 💯 In the United States, Black infants have the lowest breastfeeding initiation rates of any racial group at 74.1 percent, according to the CDC. The national average is 83.2 percent with Asian infants having the highest rate of initiating breastfeeding at 90.8 percent.  On average, Black women also breastfeed for the shortest period of time, compared to other racial groups. #Extendednursing and #SelfWeaning were always something I wanted to give my child for themselves but if I’m being honest, some of it was for my ancestors. ✊🏾 Sometimes as I nursed my child I thought of how devastated I would be if it were my profession to neglect him. I imagined that pain and fought through every tired moment on this journey because I wanted to fully exercise my right to do this thing MY WAY and give my child the best of me. The 1,339 days he spent at my bosom went by too quickly and for him and our bond I would do it all over again. ❤️ #blackbreastfeedingweek #bbw23 #blackmothersbreastfeed