African American women breastfeed less than their white and Latina counterparts: in fact, only 19 percent of African American women breastfeed their babies for 6 months.

That’s according to “An Easy Guide to Breastfeeding for African American Women”, a publication from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That and other publications are all easily accessed through a guide to online breastfeeding resources, a Web site offered by the Early Head Start National Resource Center, a federally-funded but community-based program that helps low-income families with young children and pregnant women.

“Breastfeeding offers a true head start to children and families,” says the EHS NRC, explaining that the online guide is an effort to address the fact that only 32.1 percent of children under the federal poverty level were breastfed for the first 6 months of their lives. The Web site is meant to help address barriers to breastfeeding for low-income families, though the site is certainly helpful to anyone. As you peruse the site, it becomes increasingly clear that one reason why some women don’t breastfeed is because they have little literature that speaks to them and their experiences, or—at the very least—features images of women who look like them.

This is, in fact, addressed in the “Easy Guide” for African American mothers, which lists reasons why many mothers in that community do not breastfeed. For one, it’s not seen as “normal.” There is not enough support from friends and relatives in a “community based on kinship.”  There’s less access to information on breastfeeding, but plenty of formula samples and coupons. Finally, as the guide says, “There are only a few booklets, posters, and other materials that show pictures of us breastfeeding our babies. But, there are many materials that show White women and Latinas breastfeeding. This lack of culturally sensitive images has helped support a belief that breastfeeding is no longer a part of our culture.”

That’s one area in which the online guide shines: literature that targets different nationalities, including much-needed culturally sensitive material. The site offers links to breastfeeding guides written specifically for African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Chinese (in Chinese) and Hispanic (in Spanish) families.

What’s a sample of culturally sensitive material? Here’s an example from the Guide to American Indian and Alaska Natives: “The practice of breastfeeding respects our heritage and culture and strengthens our children, our communities, and our future…Breastfeeding means stronger and wiser leaders for the challenges of the future…Breastfeeding honors our values, heritage and traditions.” (It also decreases the baby’s risk of developing diabetes, a disease for which American Indians and Alaska Natives have the greatest risk out of any population group, the brochure notes.)

In an effort to be thorough, the Web site provides indirect access to official recommendations on breastfeeding from Head Start, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians. In addition, readers can view the data on breastfeeding from the National Immunization Survey, learn how to start a breastfeeding welcoming program, or plan to incorporate breastfeeding immediately after birth —and that’s only a few options, and each of those links take you to new pages that have even more links themselves.

While the guide is indeed thorough, it is quite utilitarian—this isn’t the place to go if you’re looking for fancy design. And the links that lead to pages of more links can feel a little like a labyrinth. Still, the guide is a good reminder that in order to reach all mothers, you can’t just write about them—you have to write to them.”