WAUSAU, Wis. — There's a new push to help new mothers in the Hmong community. 

The Marshfield Clinic Health System looked into breastfeeding trends among Hmong women earlier this summer. It found that breastfeeding rates are drastically lower among the Hmong population compared to the white population.

A new study is looking into the reasons driving those numbers. The goal of the study is to identify barriers Hmong mothers face, while helping educators, health care providers and social workers offer "targeted assistance to Hmong women in deciding between breastfeeding and bottle feeding." 

Kia Lor, a researcher and Medical College of Wisconsin-Wausau medical student, is leading the interviews in the new study. 

"Some of the topics that I've been hearing come up often are family — so the roles in the family or the roles in the household as the mother — whether they are a stay-at-home mom or they work outside the home — how taxing their workspace is, how friendly their workplace is in terms of areas to pump or areas to feed the infant," Lor said when describing some of the barriers she has found in her research so far. 

"Another interesting factor that came up as well was the hesitancy to join lactation courses. I have been hearing that a lot of mothers who didn't breastfeed and didn't attend these courses [aren't breastfeeding] because they don't see other Hmong mothers that are in these courses as well, and these courses are not often taught in Hmong," she added. 

Hmong women with children or who are currently pregnant are eligible to participate in the study if they are 18-years-old or older. To participate in the study, click here.

Watch the full interview with Lor above.