Latina Moms and Moms-To-Be Insights

Todobebé, Inc revealed key insights about Latinas and Hispanic mothers, after analyzing data from polls conducted during 2011 among visitors to its site.

One of the biggest winners was breastfeeding. An overwhelming majority, 93%, planned to breastfeed or already nursed their baby. “This is great news for the Hispanic community. Doctors agree on the benefits of breastfeeding your child for at least six months, but we did not expect this number,” said co-founder and Todobebé’s Chief Content Officer, Jeannette Kaplun.

The polls also revealed widespread support for bilingualism; 97% of Latinas think it’s good to teach more than one language to their children and 49% said more than one language is spoken at home. Interestingly, 10% of respondents said they do not speak a second language at home, but their children do.

Latinas also expressed their parenting views: 65% of respondents said they disagree with letting the baby cry it out at night. Although 54% said that children should not see more than one hour of television a day, 26% admitted they let their children watch TV for more than an hour a day. Regarding how to discipline their children, 38% are in favor of using spanking, but most, 51% did not.

Another key finding relates to fertility. While 47% said it took less than a year to get pregnant, 23% said they had taken more than a year to conceive and 29% said they weren’t pregnant yet. About sharing the great news, 53% prefer to wait until they’re three months of pregnancy before notifying everyone.

Other unexpected findings:

67% admitted that they would choose the gender of their baby if possible

Only 19% of Latinas would not plan their baby’s birth date

85% disapprove allowing children under 13 years to use Facebook

69% of respondents said they do not like naming their children just like their parents, despite a long-standing tradition in many Latin American countries

On the use of folic acid, which has been proven to help reduce neural tube defects, there was a decrease from the previous year. In 2010, 64% of respondents said they had taken before pregnancy but in 2011 only 43% said they had done so.