Researchers in the current issue of the Journal of Human Lactation, the official journal of the International Lactation Consultant Association, published by SAGE, suggest that it's important to fully understand how ethnicity effects breastfeeding counseling so that nursing can be effectively promoted in a multiethnic country like the US.

The study looked at the impact of peer counseling on breastfeeding among inner-city, lower income, Latina women. The intervention group received prenatal and postpartum home visits, in-hospital support, in addition to the usual breastfeeding education from the hospital. The control group only had conventional breastfeeding education at the hospital.

The study results showed that mothers were more likely to continue breastfeeding if they received focused support. Mothers in the intervention group were between 10 and 66 times more likely to nurse exclusively at 2 months postpartum (depending on their subgroup in the Latino community) when compared to the mothers in the control group.

"We are still far from reaching the AAP and WHO recommendations for exclusive breastfeeding through the first six months of life," write the authors, Alex K. Anderson, PhD, MPH, Grace Damio, MS, CD-N, Donna J. Chapman, PhD, RD, and Rafael Pйrez-Escamilla, PhD, "and there is a need for further studies to determine why different ethnic groups respond differently to early breast feeding promotion interventions."-SAGE Publications