Black Breastfeeding Week, the only national health campaign with an explicit national focus on improving Black maternal and infant health through breastfeeding, is celebrating its 12th year from August 25-31. The awareness effort was created in response to the gaping racial disparities in breastfeeding rates that have existed for over 40 years, despite the proven benefits of breastfeeding for mothers and babies.

The 2024 theme, “Listen Up! Reclaiming Our Narrative & Centering Our Stories for Breastfeeding Justice,” honors the power of storytelling to shift cultural norms in infant feeding in Black communities. The week-long awareness campaign will include an online Storytelling Festival on social media where community members are invited to share their Breastfeeding Joy, and an Open Mic Night for Black Mamas hosted live in New York City (August 28th) and Oakland (August 25th), as well as virtual open mic night (August 30) that will be streamed live to the BBW Facebook page.

Black parents are invited to share their birth and breastfeeding related poems, songs, birth stories, comedy shorts and more for a night that amplifies Black voices and stories as critical tools for shifting the narrative of birth and breastfeeding in our communities. In Oakland, the open mic night will be hosted by Tia Nomore, actress, rapper and star of the 2023 movie Earth Mama. In New York City, the open mic will be hosted by award-winning comedian Nicky Sunshine and the virtual event will be hosted by comedian and maternal health activist, Angelina Spicer.

“Black Breastfeeding Week is and always has been about reclamation — taking back a tradition that we were intentionally disconnected from,” says BBW co-founder Kimberly Seals Allers, a former senior editor at Essence magazine and founder of Irth, a doctor and hospital rating and review app for Black parents. “Our stories have power. We can shift cultural norms and send a clear message to public health entities that deny culturally relevant lactation support and to corporate interests that aggressively market inferior first foods to our communities, that we can and do breastfeed.”

According to the CDC, only 75% of Black infants are ever breastfed compared to 86% of non-Hispanic white infants and 92.7% of Asian infants. The number of breastfed Black infants significantly declines at 6 months and 12 months to nearly half the rate of white infants. The reasons are complex, starting from being denied breastfeeding opportunities during enslavement to lack of culturally relevant lactation support, and a history of aggressive infant formula marketing in Black communities. However, increasing breastfeeding rates among Black women and birthing people is critical to improving maternal and child health outcomes and reducing infant mortality rates in the Black community.

Other Black Breastfeeding Week Events:

• Irth (as in Birth, but without the B for bias), the only app for Black parents to rate and review maternity doctors and pediatricians, is hosting an in-app Lactation Line from August 25-30th.

• Storytelling As Support: Webinar Hosted by MomsRising 8/28 at 1pm EST | Join leading Black breastfeeding researchers, advocates, and social media influencers to discuss how they incorporate storytelling into their impact model for change.

Get more information on all Black Breastfeeding Week events by following @BlkBfingWeek on Instagram.

Download the Black Breastfeeding Week social media kit here.

Sponsors for BBW 2024 include: Birth Center Equity, Irth App, Mamava, Momsrising, Health Connect One, and the Melinated Mammay Atlas. Learn more at BlackBreastFeedingWeek.org

About Black Breastfeeding Week:
Founded in 2013 by three nationally recognized breastfeeding advocates, Black Breastfeeding Week is an annual, week-long community-level, and multi-media campaign from August 25-31 to raise awareness of the health benefits and personal empowerment of breastfeeding in the Black community. Co-founded by Kimberly Seals Allers, Author, Host of Birthright Podcast, and Founder of the Irth App, Kiddada Green, Founding Executive Director of Black Mothers’ Breastfeeding Association (BMBFA), and Anayah Ayoka, nurse-midwife and educator, Black Breastfeeding Week has now been celebrated nationally with over 1200 community events, 12+ million social media impressions, countless community grants and product donations. BBW is also dedicated to celebrating all of the ways black families support healthy and strong infants from supporting breastfeeding to early literacy and good nutrition. Learn more at www.BlackBreastfeedingWeek.org