Breastfeeding Sisters That Are Receiving Support: Community-Based Peer Support Program Created for and by Women of Color

Abstract

Substantial racial disparities accounted for 66% of non-Hispanic Black mothers initiating breastfeeding in 2015 compared with 83% of non-Hispanic white mothers and 87% of Hispanic mothers in Tennessee. Created in 2015, Breastfeeding Sisters That Are Receiving Support (BSTARS) uses key partnerships at monthly meetings that promote supportive environments with topics around breastfeeding education, support, and women's health issues. The BSTARS group helps rebuild the culture surrounding the health equity of Black women and women of color and their families by offering informational and emotional support, facilitate positive changes, and heal historical trauma. BSTARS addresses barriers to breastfeeding support for Black women and women of color, including lack of support from the mother's partner, family, or health care provider, generational myths, unawareness of public health programs to support breastfeeding, educational gaps, and embarrassment. This program incorporates critical partnerships, including health care providers, birth workers, and other supporters, into the organization to offer comprehensive support for the mother's continuity of care. The environment and educational support for breastfeeding and women's health issues are addressed under the lens of health equity and eliminating barriers experienced by the mother's color, or socioeconomic status. A mother's socioeconomic status often unjustly hinders her from receiving the lactation and social support needed for healthier outcomes. In 2019, the breastfeeding initiation rate in Tennessee increased to 71.3% among non-Hispanic Blacks. BSTARS has reached >500 families since its inception. BSTARS focuses their specific intervention on all facets of the family dyad, through teaching the importance of breastfeeding and breast milk now and sustainable for the future.