Culture Specific
That?s where Uzazi Village steps in, to try and normalize breast-feeding in the black community. One way is through mother-to-mother support here at the Chocolate Milk Caf?, the only breast-feeding support group in Kansas City that?s exclusively for African-American women. Payne says Uzazi serves women of all races, but at the root the organization is culture specific. Its purpose is to address maternal health disparities in the urban community, and Payne says, that usually means African-American women.
"Notice that there were other Caucasian people here, but they did not join the circle. That is purposeful," says Payne. "We're trying to create a safe space, what I like to call a 'sacred environment' that is just for them so that they can nurture one another, they can heal, they can rejuvenate. They can talk safely, speak about all the harm that has been done to them, process it, take up a healthy attitude, healthy behaviors and go on."
Part of developing a "healthy attitude" is seeing images that look like them. Payne says a lot of literature around breast-feeding and infant care shows pictures of Caucasian babies and women. But she says black women can?t relate to that.So she displays photos and uses multimedia presentations of African-American women breastfeeding, like this one: