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Today someone asked me if I knew of any public service announcements or campaigns to promote breastfeeding featuring black moms and babies or other women of color. Why, yes, I do, and I pointed her to a recent few of them. It got me thinking about how rarely in my day to day life I see women of color breastfeeding. Of course I hardly see ANY women breastfeeding, but when I do, they are always white. I think that is one of the hurdles we face in trying to get more black women to breastfeed. If you don't see women who look like you doing it, you think this is something that isn't for you.
Thankfully there have been a lot of breastfeeding awareness campaigns that have featured women of color. And although sometimes I am disappointed in the images used in many ad campaigns selling products for breastfeeding moms, lots of companies get it right and use diverse models.
So with this in mind, I decided to create a resource for those of you who work in breastfeeding support or are doulas and childbirth educators that feature pictures of women of color, particularly black women, breastfeeding. I will link to the original source whenever possible and update this post and leave a link to it in my sidebar. If you find any others that you think should be included, please email them to me.
California Department of Public Health- Mother's Milk for Daddy's Baby campaign
California Department of Public Health- Formula. Mother's Milk. Not the Same campagin
Ontario Human Rights Commission- A Baby's Right to Eat
INFACT Canada- Benefits 101 Series
Shelby County, TN- Babies Were Born to be Breastfed
Texas WIC- I'm a proud breastfeeding dad amongst others
Texas WIC- African-American Breastfeeding Promotion
Austin WIC- I breastfeed because....
Companies that use moms of color in their ads
Hygeia
There are a few, but it's not enough! If I am missing a brand you know and love, let me know in the comments and I'll add them to the list. If there is another PSA that you know of, tell me about it so I can spread the word.
