A Narrative Review of Culturally Informed Breastfeeding Interventions for African American Women.

The review did not critically appraise the 16 included studies, so the quality of the evidence behind each intervention cannot be weighed. The included studies used many designs and outcome measures, and the review did not combine them statistically. Interventions combined several components at once, such as education, peer support, community engagement, cultural materials, and supplies, so the contribution of any single component cannot be separated. Not all studies sampled only African American women: 11 studies also included 842 women who did not identify as Black/African American, and 9 studies described participants as Black, so African immigrant women may have been included. One study had 2 participants from Nigeria, and another had 36% of participants not born in the United States. Cultural terms such as culturally sensitive, culturally appropriate, culturally competent, culturally tailored, culturally relevant, and culturally grounded were used inconsistently, and operational definitions were not always provided. Breastfeeding outcomes were not measured or reported consistently: 3 studies did not measure significance, 1 did not attain it, 1 did not report a breastfeeding outcome, and 1 reported outcomes for the setting/location rather than participants. No policy-level intervention was identified, so this review does not show how policy changes affect breastfeeding outcomes. Findings may not generalize beyond the mostly Black/African American US samples studied.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest and no funding was received.

Do not read this review as proof that any specific culturally informed breastfeeding intervention improves outcomes for African American women. The review did not appraise study quality, many included studies combined education, peer support, community engagement, cultural materials, and other components at once, and some samples included non-African American or African immigrant women, so the contribution of any single component cannot be separated.