"…[T]his is What We are Missing": The Value of Communicating Infant Feeding Information Across Three Generations of African American Women.

The sample was 35 women in 15 families from the southeastern United States, selected by purposive and snowball sampling, so the themes may not apply to other regions, families, or generations. The youngest generation had to have breastfed a child for 3 months or more and the child had to be 5 years or younger, so the study may miss women who did not breastfeed or breastfed for a shorter time. The study reported meanings and themes, not breastfeeding rates, infant health, or outcomes from an intervention. The first author was the only data collector and was race-concordant with participants, which may have helped access and disclosure but also increases researcher bias. Social desirability bias may have affected answers about family relationships and infant feeding communication. The paper does not report how many participants expressed each theme, so the themes cannot be treated as universal findings.

The authors stated they reported no conflict of interest, while also disclosing that two coauthors served as doctoral mentors to the first author and the first author mentored another coauthor. Funding for the research came from the College of Public Health, University of South Florida.

Do not conclude that including grandmothers or mothers in breastfeeding education will increase breastfeeding rates or improve infant health. The study reported what African American women said about family infant feeding conversations, not a tested intervention or a breastfeeding outcome.