State Rep. Robyn Porter: "It's birth injustice we're talking about."
More rooms for moms to lactate at work and more Black mothers breastfeeding their babies.
A crew of local organizations concerned with Black maternal health gathered inside Whalley Avenue’s Community Action Agency Monday afternoon to push those two goals — and to announce their formal collaboration to decrease disparities in health outcomes of Black and white mothers and infants across the Greater New Haven area.
The main way those partners are hoping to improve Black maternal and infant health is by making space for mothers to breastfeed and pump at work.
The organizations joining forces to advocate for that change included the Community Action Agency of Greater New Haven, New Haven Healthy Start, DHJ Services, The New Haven chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, and the New Haven chapter of Links Incorporated.
On Monday, leaders from those organizations were also joined by Lt. Gov. Susan Bysewiecz, State Rep. Robyn Porter, Mayor Justin Elicker, New Haven Health Director Maritza Bond and a host of other health professionals.
Dawn Johnson, the CEO of healthcare consulting group DHJ Services.
“I remember those days when I had to put my foot against the door so I could pump to make sure I had food for my daughters,” said Dawn Johnson, the CEO of healthcare consulting group DHJ Services.
Former Mayor Toni Harp, representing the New Haven chapter of Links Incorporated, said that the struggle described by Johnson — figuring out how to preserve breast milk on the job without a place to pump it or a fridge to store it — is directly related to health outcomes for both mothers and their children. Babies who drink breast milk are at lower risks for asthma, obesity, diabetes and sudden death syndrome than those who consume formula, she said, while mothers who breastfeed experience lower risks for ovarian cancer, diabetes and blood pressure than those who don’t breastfeed.
However, Black women across the country breastfeed at significantly lower rates than white women.
“That issue goes back to slavery,” said State Rep. Robyn Porter, “when Black women were made to breastfeed white babies.” For a long time, she argued, there’s been a failure to reinforce the practice of breastfeeding among Black communities or to educate Black women about the benefits of breastfeeding.
New Haven Health Director Maritza Bond reported that in 2019, Black women in New Haven were seven times more likely to experience fetal death than white mothers and six times more likely to lose their infant.
However, only 67 businesses and organizations across the state are actually recognized and certified by the State of Connecticut’s Breastfeeding Coalition as having such a space. The Community Action Agency itself only just became certified; a private office on the second floor has since been set aside for lactating mothers and leadership said a refrigerator will soon be installed in that room.
A few of Monday's many speakers.
Community Action Agency's new lactation center.
By the end of the summer, and in line with the start of national Black Breastfeeding Week on Aug. 25, the new coalition is hoping to work with employers around the region to boost that number up to 100 businesses.
Porter also pointed to Senate Bill 986: An Act Protecting Maternal Health, which could increase the number of birthing centers around the state and create new pathways to certify doulas and provide for maternal homecare. Read more in CT News Junkie here.
She recalled becoming pregnant with her daughter, who was born under two pounds in a premature delivery. Early on in her pregnancy, Porter was experiencing intimate partner violence and began leaking fluids. She went to see a white lab technician who told her everything was fine and to return home for rest. Instead, she went to the doctor’s office — where her water broke and she was given medicine to postpone going into labor.
If she had gone home, she said, she would’ve lost her baby — who is now a 29-year-old woman.
She stated: “It’s birth injustice we’re talking about.”