PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A Philadelphia community group is working to support Black and brown mothers and improve breastfeeding rates, who are less likely to breastfeed their babies and have more health problems than white mothers, according to the CDC.
Now a group called CocoLife is aiming to change that trend.
Elolene Watkins and her 3-month-old baby, Miles, talk with a doula about postpartum health.
They are living together in Germantown through a resource platform for mothers called CocoLife.
“The mortality and morbidity disparities for black mothers and babies are astronomical,” said CocoLife founder Alexia Doumbuya.
Doumbouya founded CocoLife to improve the health of black mothers and their babies, and increasing breastfeeding rates is a big part of that mission.
“In the black community, there's not a lot of emphasis on breastfeeding because of systemic racism,” Doumbuya says. “Formula feeding is encouraged, so it's like, if you breastfeed, your baby will latch, so you can feed your baby formula and go back to work.”
Dumbuya is also a doula (a non-medical professional specialising in maternity care) and helps educate women.
“I think it's important to show the difference in belly size because it can make people think that the baby isn't getting enough milk,” Doumbuya says.
She explains how much milk a baby needs by using fruits to represent the size of a baby's stomach.
“It really helped me understand that babies don't need big bottles of milk,” Watkins said.
Watkins said breastfeeding Myles was easy and he was growing quickly.
She finds comfort in knowing that breastfeeding is good for mother and baby, both mentally and physically.
“I found out my son has eczema and breast milk is better for it,” Watkins says.
CocoLife has a variety of programs and support groups to help women.
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Stephanie Staal
