A few years ago I did a post about differences in breastfeeding rates based on age, race, education, region, and income based on 2005 data.
The bottom line was that if you're younger, less educated, have lower income, don't live on the West Coast or the Northeast, or are African American, you are less likely to breastfeed. One encouraging fact was that the some of the biggest gains in breastfeeding rates were coming from African American moms.
New data from the CDC, for the period 2004-2008, confirms these disparities, and also highlights a discouraging trend. It appears that the breastfeeding rate among African American moms declined from about 60% to about 54%.
I'm not sure what would account for this decline. Another recent study shows that African American moms are significantly "more comfortable" with formula feeding than moms of other races.
For more on African American moms and breastfeeding, see this podcast interview with Kathi Barber, founder of the African American Breastfeeding Alliance.
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