Breastfeeding Promotion: An Infant Feeding Strategy to Improve Life Course Trajectory

Breastfeeding has proven benefits across the lifespan for both the mother and her child. There is strong evidence that breastfeeding is associated with improved health outcomes related to conditions that disproportionately affect Black women and children – e.g. prematurity, asthma, and obesity. From a life course perspective, breastfeeding is simultaneously a risk reduction and a health promotion strategy. Breastfeeding can decrease the risk of health conditions that disproportionately affect Black women and children while beneficially increasing their protective factors across the lifespan. This presentation has three objectives. First, provide an overview of the life course theory (LCT) and the importance of integrating breastfeeding promotion within the life course discourse. Scientific evidence will be presented on how breastfeeding is an intervention that addresses the four key LCT concepts of timeline, timing, environment, and equity. Second, describe how each LCT concept was integrated into the design of an infant feeding strategy for low-income minority women and infants. And finally, present how breastfeeding can be strategically planned into program activities at each level of the MCH pyramid. This presentation highlights the importance of breastfeeding as an essential component of a larger life course strategy to address health disparities.