Deaf Mothers' Outreach for Breastfeeding Support: The Production of Vlogs

Breastfeeding rates among deaf mothers who use American Sign Language (ASL) are unknown. Preliminary data generated in Rochester, NY, however, suggests that these deaf mothers might have more breastfeeding success (initiation, duration, and exclusivity) than hearing mothers. We hypothesize characteristics of deaf culture and signed languages uniquely support breastfeeding in this community. Members of the Rochester Deaf Moms Club (RDMC) posit that there are deaf mothers in the US isolated from deaf community support and breastfeeding information accessible to hearing mothers. Investigators reached out to RDMC and Deaf Women of Rochester for their participation in the production of vlogs (video blogs) which could provide language accessible support for deaf mothers nationally. Six deaf mothers generated vlog topics. Topics were informed by deaf cultural norms of using stories and scenarios to illustrate the social and logistical advantages of breastfeeding. With the help of a volunteer deaf film student, we are filming deaf mothers using ASL to convey breastfeeding facts, and strategies for combining breastfeeding with work. Mothers are able to send their own videos to a designated g-mail site set up for the project. The resulting vlogs are language accessible, culturally acceptable, and will be available on the web site of the National Center for Deaf Health Research and selected social media sites. This collaborative service project is an outcome of using the principles of community-based participatory research including mutual learning between community members and researchers and having the community, not the researchers, set priorities.