Breastfeeding Awareness and Empowerment (BAE): A Black Women-Led Approach to Promoting a Multigenerational Culture of Health

Autor: Rebecca Duncan, Jabina Coleman, Sharon Herring, Meg Kawan, Christy Santoro, Meghana Atre, Aleigha Mason, Shawana Moore, Aparna Kumar
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Societies, Vol 12, Iss 1, p 28 (2022)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2075-4698
DOI: 10.3390/soc12010028
Popis: (1) Background: Critical gaps in the U.S. healthcare system perpetuate adverse reproductive health outcomes for Black people. Grounded in reproductive justice and trauma-informed care, Breastfeeding Awareness and Empowerment (BAE) has developed a program titled BAE Cafe to directly address these gaps by providing community-based lactation and perinatal mental health support. A literature review identified key programmatic gaps, namely, access to knowledge relevant to troubleshooting breastfeeding, peer support, community support and healthcare system support, and system-level factors that impede families and communities from accessing lactation support. (2) Methods: This paper describes BAE Cafe through a group process observation and participant survey. (3) Results: The observation of groups highlighted the core elements of the BAE Cafe model: knowledge, support and mental health support in a peer driven format. Participant survey feedback was overwhelmingly positive and highlighted the critical importance of lactation support for Black women by Black women and BAE’s role in participants’ decisions to continue breastfeeding. (4) Conclusions: BAE Cafe is a replicable, scalable, peer-driven and low-barrier intervention that has the potential to improve outcomes for Black families. Additional research and investment are now needed to assess large-scale implementation to reduce disparities and address health inequity across different contexts and settings.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals