Why We Center Black Families
Centering Black families is not about exclusion. It’s about intentionality.
The Obsidian Milk Collective was created in response to inequities that have disproportionately shaped the pregnancy, birth, lactation, and infant-feeding experiences of Black families.
We center Black families because inequity is not experienced equally.
Black families have navigated generations of reproductive oppression, medical racism, exploitation of Black women’s reproductive and lactation labor, inadequate access to culturally responsive care, and systems that have too often dismissed their knowledge, autonomy, concerns, and experiences. These histories are not separate from present-day disparities; they continue to shape how Black families experience maternal, infant, and lactation care today.
Centering Black families means allowing those realities to intentionally shape how we listen, design programs, provide care, build partnerships, measure impact, and advocate for systems change.
It does not mean that every OMC program or service is restricted by race.
Some of our work is intentionally created specifically for Black families and communities. Other programs and services may serve eligible families across racial and demographic backgrounds while remaining informed by OMC’s commitment to addressing the inequities that disproportionately impact Black families.
We believe solutions designed with those most impacted by inequity at the center can help build stronger, more responsive systems of care for everyone.
Centering is not the same as restricting. It is choosing where we begin.
History Shapes the Present
Black lactation experiences in the United States cannot be separated from the history of race, reproduction, labor, and healthcare.
During slavery, Black women’s bodies, reproductive capacity, and labor were exploited for the benefit of others. Enslaved Black women were at times forced or compelled to nurse the children of enslavers while navigating separation from, inadequate resources for, and threats to the well-being of their own children and families.
But Black lactation history is not defined by exploitation alone.
Across generations, Black women and communities have also carried knowledge about pregnancy, birth, infant feeding, healing, caregiving, and collective care. They have nurtured families, supported one another, resisted systems of oppression, preserved traditions, and created community where formal systems failed to provide safety or care.
That history matters because systems do not begin anew with each generation.
Medical racism, economic inequity, unequal access to healthcare, workplace conditions, geographic barriers, and the absence of culturally responsive care continue to shape maternal and infant health experiences today.
Understanding this history does not mean assuming every Black family has the same experience.
It means recognizing that present-day disparities have context, and that meaningful solutions require us to understand the conditions that helped create them.
National Snapshot
National data continue to show racial disparities in breastfeeding initiation, with Black families experiencing lower initiation rates than other major racial and ethnic groups. These differences reflect outcomes, not explanations, and must be understood within the broader conditions that shape access, opportunity, and lactation experiences.
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
Alabama continues to make progress, yet breastfeeding outcomes remain below national averages across several key measures. These statewide gaps exist alongside racial, geographic, economic, and healthcare inequities that can further shape a family’s ability to meet their feeding goals.
What Do We Know About Representation?
More than 21,000 IBCLCs are currently certified across the United States and its territories, including more than 240 in Alabama (IBLCE 2026 U.S. statistical report)
Yet publicly available data describing the racial and ethnic composition of the IBCLC workforce remain limited.
That absence matters.
Without consistent demographic data, it is difficult to understand whether the lactation workforce reflects the communities it serves, identify where representation gaps exist, or measure progress toward a more representative profession.
Representation deserves to be measured, not assumed.
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 opportunities for families to access care from providers who may share or understand their cultural experiences.
Strengthening representation within the lactation workforce is an important part of advancing Lactation Justice.
The Disparity Is Not the Family
Black families continue to experience disparities in breastfeeding initiation, duration, and exclusivity, as well as broader inequities in maternal and infant health.
But disparities are not explanations.
A difference in outcomes does not tell us why that difference exists, and it should never be used to suggest that Black families are less informed, less committed, or less interested in breastfeeding or lactation.
To understand the disparity, we have to examine the conditions surrounding it.
Those conditions can include differences in access to skilled lactation care, hospital practices, insurance coverage, paid leave, workplace protections, transportation, continuity of care, provider bias, culturally responsive services, community resources, and the broader economic and healthcare systems families must navigate.
These barriers can overlap and compound one another. And their impact does not begin or end with an individual feeding decision.
This is why OMC does not approach disparities by asking, “What is wrong with Black families?”
We ask, “What conditions are shaping these outcomes, and what needs to change?”
Centering Black families allows us to examine those conditions more clearly, respond to the barriers families identify, and build solutions that address the systems surrounding lactation; not blame the people navigating them.
Our Commitment
Centering Black families is a commitment to listen, learn, and act with intention.
We are committed to expanding access to culturally responsive lactation care, strengthening Black representation within the lactation workforce, building trusted community partnerships, and advocating for systems that respect the autonomy, dignity, and lived experiences of Black families.
Our work extends beyond individual consultations. We educate, build community, develop pathways to care, challenge barriers, advocate for systems change, and work to ensure lactation is recognized as an essential component of maternal and infant health.
We also recognize that meaningful change requires more than creating services. It requires examining who can access them, whose experiences informed their design, whose voices are represented in decision-making, and whether the systems surrounding families make meaningful choice possible.
OMC centers Black families because addressing inequity requires intentionality.
Centering is not the same as restricting. It is choosing where we begin, and committing to build from there.