Why We Center Black Families
Black families deserve to see themselves reflected in lactation care, leadership, and support. Our work is intentionally designed to address longstanding inequities while restoring representation, opportunity, and access.
The Obsidian Milk Collective was created to serve Black families because culturally responsive lactation care is not equally accessible to everyone. Representation matters, and families deserve care that reflects their lived experiences, honors their feeding goals, and acknowledges the realities that shape maternal and infant health.
Centering Black families is not about exclusion, it’s about intentionality.
The Reality Today
The need for culturally responsive lactation care is reflected in the data. While breastfeeding offers significant health benefits, Black families continue to experience disparities in outcomes both nationally and here in Alabama. These differences are not the result of individual choices—they reflect differences in access to support, representation, and systems of care.
National Snapshot
National data show that Black families continue to experience lower breastfeeding initiation rates than every other major racial and ethnic group.
National data consistently demonstrate disparities in breastfeeding initiation, exclusivity, and duration among Black families. These outcomes reflect inequities in access to skilled lactation support, culturally responsive care, workplace protections, and postpartum resources, not differences in families' desire to breastfeed.
Source: CDC Breastfeeding Report Card, National Immunization Survey (NIS), and other cited references.
In Alabama, breastfeeding initiation among Black infants increased from 55.5% in 2019 to 64.7% in 2022. While this represents meaningful progress, a substantial gap remains compared with White infants, whose initiation rate reached 80.7% in 2022.
Source: Alabama Department of Public Health
Alabama Snapshot
While Alabama continues to improve, breastfeeding rates remain below the national average across several key measures.
Representation Matters
Families benefit when they have access to providers who understand their lived experiences and reflect the diversity of the communities they serve. Yet Black professionals remain significantly underrepresented within the lactation workforce, limiting access to culturally responsive care for many families. OMC believes strengthening the lactation workforce is an essential part of advancing lactation justice.
Less than 2% of IBCLCs identify as Black.
That number is incredibly powerful when placed alongside the fact that Black people make up roughly 13–14% of the U.S. population.
Published data describing the racial diversity of Alabama's IBCLC workforce are limited. This lack of publicly available information highlights another gap: without understanding who is providing care, it becomes more difficult to measure whether the workforce reflects the communities it serves.
Beyond the Numbers
More Than Statistics
The numbers help us understand where disparities exist, but they do not define Black families. Behind every statistic is a parent making feeding decisions, a family navigating postpartum recovery, and a community deserving of compassionate, culturally responsive support.
Black families have always nourished, cared for, and sustained their children. Yet too often, they have done so while navigating systems that were not designed with their experiences in mind.
OMC exists to change that.
Our Commitment
We are committed to restoring representation, expanding access to culturally responsive lactation care, and strengthening the systems that support Black families throughout pregnancy, postpartum, and beyond.
Our work extends beyond individual consultations. We educate communities, build partnerships, advocate for systems change, and work to ensure lactation is recognized as an essential component of maternal and infant health.