would like to hear from you who work with low-income women.  Our Prenat=
al
clinics are feeling very frustrated as they are working hard at promoting=

the idea of breastfeeding, have lots of posters and handouts on the
subject, speak positively about breastfeeding, refer them to WIC,

>>>>
 I worked for 10 yrs in public health bfing programs and am a trainer for PC
program administrators. One of  the obstacles to bfing (especially in the low
income population) seems to be that bfing not what grandmother, mother, aunts
and frineds have done. So I used to try to do PR in the general population .
I spoke at senior citizen groups on " WHy BFing is important to our entire
community", did TV interviews for health minutes,  bulletin boards at the
library etc. It helped to get grandparents to realize bfing  is important
even if they didn't do it.  I invited support people to the classes. We had a
Baby Buck program which provided Baby Bucks ( play money) which could be
redeemed for baby and mom items in a special store we set up at the health
dept) and if a client brought a grandparent to a class, she got extra bucks.
We didn't focus on extended bfing--I was happy just to get them started! We
also had to help them face obstacles like goig back to work 10 days
postpartum in fast food or factory work that did not provide support for
pumping. Or going back to school. I had a high school senior who had used up
most of her excused absences and only had 2 excused days left at delivery so
she returned to school half  days 2 days postpartum. I also worked with many
moms who are in the National Guard and  are away a weekend each month. In our
program  I had many military moms, university students ( including Med
students and residents ). So the challenges may be different so you have to
design a program to help the specific moms you are targeting. That's why PC
programs are so good--they have peers who know the challenges and have
themself overcome those challenges.
In my opinion, brochures are a waste of money. Many WIC programs order
thousands of dollars each year worth of brochures without realizing these go
into the trash can in the bathroom, or the toddlers color and draw on them.
Or they don't appeal to the population. How many times do we come home with
brochures we intend to read and then toss them out. That money is better
spent on personnel--the right type though. It needs to be properly trained
and supported peer counselors.
email if you want more info. I train program administrators and peer
counselors and present workshops on the topic.

Barbara Whitehead, IBCLC
Ayden NC

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