Breastfeeding and Intersectionality in the Deep South: Race, Class, Gender and Community Context in Coastal Mississippi

• Published in: Women (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 5; no. 2; p. 21
• Main Authors: Bartkowski, John P., Klee, Katherine, Xu, Xiaohe, Roach, Jacinda B., Jones, Shakeizia (Kezi)
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Toronto MDPI AG 12.06.2025
• Subjects: African Americans; breastfeeding; Breastfeeding & lactation; community support; female; infant; mother; Nutrition; rural; Social networks; Social support; Womens health; United States > US; Mississippi
• ISSN: 2673-4184; 2673-4184
• DOI: 10.3390/women5020021

Intersectionality, especially with a race–class–gender focus, has been used to study many facets of women’s experiences. However, this framework has been underutilized in the study of breastfeeding prevalence. Our study is the first of its kind to use intersectionality to illuminate breastfeeding network prevalence disparities with empirical data. We use insights from this theory to examine breastfeeding patterns reported by women living on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Mississippi makes an excellent site for such an examination, given its history of racial discrimination, entrenched poverty, and strikingly low rates of breastfeeding, particularly for African American women. We identify a series of factors that influence racial disparities in lactation network prevalence, that is, breastfeeding among friends and family of the women we surveyed. Our investigation relies on survey data drawn from a random sample of adult women who are representative of the Mississippi Gulf Coast population supplemented by a non-random oversample of African American women in this predominantly rural tri-county area. Results from the first wave of the CDC-funded 2019 Mississippi REACH Social Climate Survey reveal that Black-White differentials in breastfeeding network prevalence are significantly reduced for African American women who report (1) higher income levels and (2) more robust community support for breastfeeding. We conclude that breastfeeding is subject to two key structural factors: economic standing and community context. An appreciation of these intersecting influences on breastfeeding and long-term efforts to alter them could bring about greater breastfeeding parity among African American and White women in Mississippi and perhaps elsewhere. We end by identifying the practical implications of our findings and promising directions for future research.