Breastfeeding attitudes, beliefs, and practices in low-income African American women in Shelby County, Tennessee, before a planned media campaign

Background: Shelby County, (Memphis) Tennessee has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the country, with pronounced disparities among African Americans.

Objective: To examine baseline breastfeeding attitudes, beliefs, and practices before the launch of a local media campaign, designed with input from focus groups with the target population. Methods: A convenience sample from the target population of low income African American women completed self-administered surveys to assess breastfeeding attitudes, beliefs, and practices. Results: Among 133 participants ranging from 15-50 + years old, 89.4% had seen, heard, or read something about breastfeeding within the last year: billboard (30%), transit sign (12%), doctor's office (58%), TV (47%), newspaper (23%), magazines (50%), radio (14%) or “other” (23%). Of those with children, 64% said they had breastfed, while 60% said breastfeeding or breast milk feeding was the best way to feed a baby. A total of 83% strongly agreed that breastfeeding is important for a child's long-term health. Only 55% said they would breastfeed a new baby. Reasons not to breastfeed included concerns with public breastfeeding (9%), fear of pain (9%), fear of harming the baby (4%), or because it was a “sexual thing” (2%). Conclusions: Most of the participants had seen, heard, or read something about breastfeeding within the last year. While importance of breastfeeding has penetrated the target population, many potential mothers do not plan to breastfeed their new baby. Input from this target population highlighted barriers to breastfeeding before launching a planned media campaign to promote the norm of breastfeeding.