It's Only Natural: Providing Support for Breastfeeding Moms

Background:  The list of breastfeeding benefits is long. For baby, breastfeeding reduces the risk of certain illnesses such as ear and lower respiratory infections, asthma, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Breastfeeding benefits mom, too. Women who breastfeed have a lower risk of health problems such as breast and ovarian cancer, type 2 diabetes, and postpartum depression. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 77% of all babies in the United States ever breastfeed. At six months old, this number drops to 49% percent. In the African-American community, the numbers are much lower. Only 62% of African-American babies ever breastfeed and the number drops further to 36% at six months old.

Program background:  To encourage African-American moms to start breastfeeding, the HHS Office on Women’s Health (OWH) launched a campaign, It’s Only Natural, to equip new moms with practical information as well as support, one of the key factors to breastfeeding success. The campaign provides materials that are uniquely crafted for African-American women, including 22 videos with messages about breastfeeding that offer encouragement, advice, and respect. The real women in these videos share personal experiences and serve as role models for expectant and nursing women. This form of social support aims to increase self-efficacy among African-American breastfeeding moms to start breastfeeding and to continue breastfeeding for at least one year. Though the campaign officially launched in April 2013, OWH concentrated promotion efforts at the beginning of August during World Breastfeeding Week 2013. Outreach centered largely on social media, which included Facebook posts and Tweets. They developed infocards and an infographic with the goal of making information about the campaign easily shareable for online use. OWH reached out to celebrity African-American moms who publicly support breastfeeding, such as singer and doula Erykah Badu whose Facebook post about the campaign reached more than 2,000,000 users.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  At the end of World Breastfeeding Week, OWH analyzed promotion efforts using both a quantitative and qualitative approach. Facebook and Twitter analytics provided data about the number of people who saw messages about It’s Only Natural from August 1-7, which totaled more than 15,000 people reached through Facebook and more than 5,000,000 Twitter impressions. Website analytics showed a 145 percent increase in the number of page visits to the campaign’s homepage during the week compared to the week immediately prior. OWH also conducted a thematic analysis of the comments on Facebook posts and tweets, looking at the types and frequency of language used. Engagement was generally positive, with users sharing their own experiences and challenges and supporting each other, which is exactly what the campaign aims to do.

Conclusions:  Reaching African-American women through social media to generate awareness about and offer support for breastfeeding is a useful and cost-effective tool. Recruiting celebrity role models can further extend a campaign’s reach.

Implications for research and/or practice:  Research shows that social support is a valuable tool for adopting and/or maintaining positive health behaviors. It’s Only Natural uses this approach to reach a population where breastfeeding support is limited.