I haven’t had and direct experience with WIC myself, but a very good friend of mine became a certified WIC counselor a few years ago and was released because she didn’t follow the proper protocol. It had to do with a policy that if a mom called with difficulties more than twice, they were to be given formula, and she didn’t do that. The mom called another time after that and the supervisor told my friend she was too militant about breastfeeding.

For some women, breastfeeding is REALLY, REALLY hard. I don’t know how I got through the hard times the first time, and the only reason I got through it the second time was because I knew I could from the first time. I know WIC has an obligation to make sure that babies are well nourished, but I would like to see them doing a better job of individualized care – at the very least, giving the moms who really do want to breastfeed the stronger support they so often need.

No, WIC doesn’t kill breastfeeding relationships. Women need to educate and prepare themselves for some of the problems that are common in breastfeeding. Just reading a simple book about breastfeeding that can be checked out from a library can better prepare a woman to handle some of the problems encountered in breastfeeding. When I was on WIC with my daughter (her 1st year of life), I was give a medela pump in style breast pump and the number of a breastfeeding peer counselor. I also attended breastfeeding support groups, which I had to research to find. Women need to be more accountable for their decisions. It’s very simple to blame others for decisions that one may feel pressured into making, but ultimately, they are making the decision. When my daughter was a week old, she hadn’t started regaining her birthweight, she was still jaundiced, and her care provider strongly recommended supplementation with formula. My daughter was still having wet and dirty diapers, and in addition to breastfeeding, I was syringe feeding her EBM. I did everything I possibly could to maintain a breastfeeding relationship, because it was a high priority to me. It took a good 2 months to establish an easy breastfeeding relationship, and I wouldn’t do anything differently. WIC is there as a resource, but it’s not their responsibility to ensure that the breastfeeding relationship works.

First, I don’t have any personal experience with WIC myself. If there are any studies out there about breastfeeding duration and WIC that would be interesting to see. I have known moms who have received it and told stories of bad information, pushing solids, etc. I have also known several women who worked as WIC breastfeeding counselors who were LLL card-carrying lactivists working very hard to change things from the inside.

I think this issue has very much to do with our culture, and when you throw poverty in the mix things get even more complicated. Through my work with LLL (I am a leader applicant, nit a leader yet, but have been attending meetings for 4 years and always attend our state conference and the CERP offerings) I have seen many women who are told the same things I hear WIC parents are told, but by their doctors! I have known women who are far more wealthy than I am and have access to the “best” doctors, IBCLCs, etc fail at breastfeeding because of bad advice problems that would have been preventable or solvable. I know breastfeeding duration rates are better for the wealthy/more educated, but I think it is safe to say that there are major problems across the board.

I can also think of some problems that may be unique to lower income situations. Breastfeeding and working can be challenging even for moms who have great resources. I can imagine that many low wage employers are not following the laws about providing time and a place to pump. In some communities, formula feeding is still seen as something poor people do (completely wrong perception but it absolutely exists). In metro Atlanta, there are probably 10 LLL groups and most of then are concentrated in the suburbs or, if in the city, in the very wealthy areas like Dunwoody, which could be a 45 min drive from South Atlanta. I live in a low income area and many of my neighbors do not have cars or air conditioning. When dealing with a severe lack of resources formula does become, in a way, “necessary” (in that once opportunities to get breastfeeding well-established fail, well, baby’s gotta eat.)

I most definitely agree with you that the system could benefit from an overhaul. Unfortunately some people are more interested in getting people off assistance than changing the infrastructure, but it’s my belief that an investment in social programs is an investment in our future. It’s also significant to consider, when we are talking about formula marketing, that when formula companies market to low income mothers we do, as a nation, subsidize those companies when WIC fails to be the resource that it should be for women.

Thank you for your post!

I think it is an important question. It appears to vary greatly from county to county. When I went in for WIC the nutritional consultant just assumed I needed formula coupons, “So you’re going to need formula, right?” and I had to correct her before she made me formula coupons! The few times I went in after having the baby I always felt like a queen for breastfeeding. However, Queen of the county Health Department is not very glamorous.

In my area the WIC staff are really overworked and spread thin. I live in an area with a lot of poverty and the wait for coupons could be anywhere between 3-4 hours.

One benefit of breastfeeding is that it is free. This has the potential to be a really powerful incentive for poor people, but WIC makes it a non-issue. This is a major problem, as poor people are at greater risk for health problems like childhood obesity and need the benefits of breastfeeding more than anyone. And in places with a lot of poverty the WIC office is likely understaffed and overworked so it becomes a formula dispensary more than a supportive network.

It is also important to mention WIC raises the cost of formula across the board so it is really vicious cycle. This raises the issue as to whether government involvement in offering this particular assistance is really helping and how it can be improved.

I believe this issue should be high on the priority list for “lactivists”, and the best way to tackle it is by improving the treatment of laboring women and their babies in hospitals so they can get a good start in the breastfeeding relationship.

@Lauren Your experience at the hospital sounds very similar to mine, and I’m at a huge city, at a university hospital that is rather progressive in some other areas. Pretty much every hospital in my area sucks for breastfeeding, though. With my first I wanted to breastfeed and they were pressuring me (actually demanding) to give my baby formula at every turn. It also took 24 hours to get a LC to me and that only happened because the nure said she was scared my baby was going to die because I refused to give her formula. When I had problems after I got home and went back to the hospital LCs for help, they didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know (my baby wouldn’t latch at all!) and said that she probably wouldn’t latch because I didn’t have any milk, and I probably wasn’t getting any because I had PCOS. She sent me home with a one-time use SNS which I never used because, well, hard to use an SNS when the baby won’t latch at all. When I was leaving I said, “What if this doesn’t work? When should I come back?” The LC was like, “Oh, you want to come back…?” Then she said, “You know, sometimes breastfeeding just doesn’t work. It’s okay.”

My point is it’s an uphill battle even for people who desperately want to breastfeed and have all the resources in the world. I did manage to salvage my breastfeeding relationship and eventually I EBF and went on to nurse my daughter until she was 2.5. But those first couple of weeks I would not wish on an enemy.
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I think it’s a mixed bag. It really depends on the nutritionist you see there. Most of my patients really want to breastfeed and just need a lot of support to do it. Unfortunately, it’s easier for the people at WIC to just end up giving them extra formula. In addition, there’s a perverse incentive to choose “breast and bottle” because apparently you get the most value that way (according to my patients, who certainly know how to make the most of the minimal amount of help they get, you get more formula and more food for mom that way).

On the other hand, I recently had a patient who was having trouble and her WIC office got her a really nice electric pump and sent someone to her house several days in a row, at no cost to her. And now she’s exclusively breastfeeding!

So it goes both ways. I am optimistic that more women will have the same kind of positive experiences.

Wow, @deathmetalmommy. Do you have a source that states that people on WIC and/or in lower tax brackets are less intelligent?

I love my local WIC offices. They encourage breastfeeding, have lactation consultants on-hand, and gave me a pump for when I returned to work. I have been breastfeeding successfully for 5 months while working full-time. I felt like giving up on breastfeeding several times but they were very encouraging and I gave it another try and, as I said, have been going strong ever since. Breastfeeding is HARD, it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do and it’s so much easier to feed a baby formula – but WIC has always been there to support me in my decision and point out that there are extra food coupons for breastfeeding mothers, and support whenever I needed it, whether it was for me, the baby, or the pump itself – furnishing different flange sizes etc. I have had a wonderful experience and I hope others stick it out if you have decided to nurse.

I am a WIC breastfeeding peer counselor and our is very different than your experience in we get so much funding to help our breastfeedingmother. My co-worker and I have started a breastfeeding support group as well as breastfeeding classes that all prenatals have to take to get current and evidence based information. It also helps that we are both sitting for our IBCLC this year. I know what you are saying though. WIC is totally formula mongers! What I have found more is that the real failure for me comes in the hospital. The IBCLC’s there are so overworked that they tend to either see someone mere hours before discharge and the RN’s on the floor do not do much to foster an early and uninterrupted breastfeeding situation for the the nursing dyad. So, by the time the PP mother is on day three or four and having BF issues, they have all but given up. We need to get better BF educators in the hospital to intercept the early issues and better post partum breastfeeding follow up. Our clinic recieves a list from the two main hospitals our WIC mohters deliver at so we are able to follow up right after discharge. I hope this helps and if you have any questions or whatever, please email me!

Audra