Before Disruption

Long before enslavement in the Americas, breastfeeding was a deeply rooted and valued part of many African societies. Knowledge about pregnancy, birth, lactation, and infant care was shared across generations through families and communities, with experienced women helping guide and support new mothers.

Infant feeding was understood as more than nourishment. It strengthened the bond between parent and child, reinforced community, and reflected a collective responsibility for the wellbeing of the next generation. While traditions differed across regions and cultures, breastfeeding was widely recognized as a natural and important part of caring for infants.

This history reminds us that Black breastfeeding did not begin with oppression. It began with knowledge, care, and community.

When Nourishment Was Taken

The transatlantic slave trade and the institution of slavery profoundly disrupted Black families and transformed breastfeeding from an act of nurture into a form of forced labor. Enslaved Black women were often compelled to breastfeed the children of enslavers, sometimes at the expense of feeding and caring for their own infants.

This practice, commonly known as wet nursing, was not a voluntary expression of community care. It was a system of exploitation that treated Black women's bodies, and their ability to nourish, as property. Many mothers were separated from their own children, denied the opportunity to establish breastfeeding relationships with their infants, or forced to prioritize the needs of another family over their own.

The effects of this history extended far beyond infancy. It disrupted generational knowledge, fractured family traditions, and altered the cultural relationship many Black families had with breastfeeding for generations to come.

For many enslaved women, the ability to nourish became something that was taken—not something they were free to choose.

The Disruption Continued…

Although slavery ended, many of the barriers affecting Black breastfeeding did not. The generations that followed navigated segregation, unequal healthcare, discriminatory hospital practices, aggressive formula marketing, and limited access to culturally responsive lactation support. Over time, these systems contributed to the erosion of breastfeeding knowledge that had once been passed from one generation to the next.

During the twentieth century, formula became widely promoted as a modern and scientific alternative to breastfeeding. Marketing campaigns, hospital practices, and social messaging disproportionately influenced many communities, often without acknowledging the historical barriers Black families already faced. For some families, formula represented convenience or opportunity. For others, it reflected the limited choices available within systems that had failed to support breastfeeding.

As knowledge was interrupted, many families found themselves without the community networks, cultural traditions, or professional support that had once made breastfeeding a shared and supported experience. The result was not a loss of love or commitment, but a loss of access to information, representation, and continuity of care.

Formula as Progress

During the mid-twentieth century, formula was increasingly marketed as modern, scientific, and a symbol of progress. As household incomes rose after World War II, the ability to purchase formula became associated with financial stability and social advancement for many families. At the same time, breastfeeding was often portrayed as outdated or something practiced only by those who could not afford formula.

For many Black families who had endured generations of forced breastfeeding during slavery, choosing formula could also represent autonomy, dignity, and participation in a society that had long denied both. These decisions cannot be understood apart from the historical context in which they occurred.

Marketing Formula to Black Families

The disruption of Black breastfeeding did not end with slavery or segregation. Throughout the twentieth century, formula companies increasingly recognized Black families as a growing consumer market. Rather than investing in breastfeeding support or addressing the systemic barriers Black mothers faced, many companies invested in marketing campaigns that portrayed formula as modern, convenient, and equal, or even superior, to breastfeeding.

These campaigns emerged during a time when positive images of Black breastfeeding were largely absent from mainstream media. For many families, formula became more visible and more heavily promoted than breastfeeding support itself. The result was not simply a shift in infant feeding, but another interruption in the transmission of breastfeeding knowledge across generations.

Spotlight

The Fultz Quadruplets

In 1946, the world's first recorded identical Black quadruplets, the Fultz sisters, became the faces of a national advertising campaign for Pet Milk. Their physician negotiated a sponsorship agreement with the company, which promised support for the family in exchange for using the sisters to promote infant formula. The campaign became one of the earliest large-scale efforts to market formula directly to Black families and was enormously successful.

The story of the Fultz sisters reflects more than a marketing campaign. It illustrates how Black children and Black families were used to build consumer trust while broader structural barriers to breastfeeding remained unaddressed. Their story remains an important reminder that today's conversations about breastfeeding cannot be separated from the history of how infant feeding has been shaped by race, commerce, and unequal access to support.

Generational knowledge cannot disappear overnight, but it can be interrupted.

And what has been interrupted can be restored.

I Wish I Dried Up

I wish every drop of my milk slipped passed those pink lips

and nourished the ground

Where the bones lay

Of my babies

Starved while I feed their murderer

I wish I dried up

So the missus babies would dry up too

And be brittle

So I could crumble them to dust

Return them to the ground

Where all children of my bosom lay equal"

— Hess Love

Remembering the Women History Didn't Record

The history of wet nursing cannot be told through a single story. While historians have identified some women by name, countless enslaved Black women were forced to nurse the children of enslavers while their own children often received less of their time, care, and nourishment. Many were hired, sold, or valued because they were lactating, yet history preserved little about their lives beyond the labor they were forced to provide.

Their names may have been omitted from the historical record, but their contributions, and the sacrifices they endured, remain part of the story of Black breastfeeding. As we reflect on this history, we honor not only the women whose names we know, but also the countless mothers whose stories were never written down.

To remember them is to restore the humanity that history too often overlooked.

Reclaiming Our Story

Today, Black breastfeeding is being reclaimed through education, representation, community, and advocacy. Across the country, Black families, lactation professionals, researchers, birth workers, and community organizations are restoring knowledge that was interrupted and creating spaces where Black parents feel seen, supported, and empowered.

This work is not about returning to the past. It is about carrying forward the strength, wisdom, and resilience that have always existed within Black communities while ensuring today's families have equitable access to the resources and support they deserve.

At The Obsidian Milk Collective, we believe restoration happens one family, one conversation, and one system at a time. By expanding access to culturally responsive lactation care, strengthening community partnerships, and advancing systems change, we are helping build a future where Black families no longer have to search for representation—they can expect it.

We are not rewriting Black breastfeeding history.

We are reclaiming it.

Why This History Matters Today

Today's breastfeeding disparities did not develop overnight, nor are they the result of individual choices alone. They reflect generations of interrupted knowledge, unequal access to care, underrepresentation within the lactation workforce, and systems that have too often failed to support Black families.

Understanding this history helps explain why representation matters, why culturally responsive care matters, and why rebuilding community-based lactation support remains essential today.

Every generation leaves something behind for the next.

May ours be a generation that restores knowledge, celebrates Black families, and ensures every parent has the opportunity to feed their child with confidence, support, and dignity.