In the face of a disaster or emergency, would Louisiana women breastfeed?

The Tulane Xavier National Center of Excellence in Women's Health recognizes that the input of community members is valuable in program development and implementation. Thus TUXCOE utilizes focus groups as one strategy to obtain the community's input. In 2005, TUXCOE sought to gain a better understanding of how mothers influence their daughter's infant feeding decision. The theory was: African American women are unlikely to re-evaluate their beliefs about breastfeeding without support from the community, and without convincing evidence and encouragement from their elder female relatives to whom they turn for advice about mothering. Researchers hoped the results would assist in the development of a breastfeeding program to encourage African American women to consider breastfeeding that would be inclusive of grandmothers. Before all focus groups were conducted Hurricane Katrina hit. After this catastrophic storm, researchers speculated that the experiences of new mothers in the city during and after the storm would change the perception of breastfeeding in the African American community. So researchers sought to answer the question: Did Hurricane Katrina have any effect on the perception of breastfeeding in the African American community? This presentation will share stories collected from women one year after the storm.