Thank you Carole and Heidi for clarifying what is often misunderstood.
I've been at WIC for 15yrs now.  I've seen quite a few changes in support
of breastfeeding. It was my honor to be a part of  the National Task Force
in the late 90's and help institute some of the changes. I stay with WIC
because it is tremendously gratifying to help the women I see. These women
would almost surely wind up not breastfeeding due to lack of support, they
are the ones who would not be able to afford an LC visit or followups and
their dreams of being able to nurse their babies might fall away. I've
cried with these moms as I've helped the baby latch for the first time.
Those that criticize WIC don't really get the full picture. It is easy to
blame WIC for lots of formula use...I'm sure we contribute to SOME moms
taking the "easy" way out and just using formula but I've also seen the
moms that are very committed and persevere through many barriers to acheive
their goal. Overall I think we do whole bunches of good and maybe there is
a tiny bit of bad in there too. If even one more baby gets his/her momma's
milk that wouldn't have maybe it can be forgiven, for that one family will
have ripple effects and our success is more far-reaching than we could ever
imagine. Perhaps it helps to cancel out some of the formula that is
distributed. WIC does more (and reaches more people) for
promotion/education and support of breastfeeding than any other
organization I can think of. More than half of the babies born in the US
are on WIC!

Ilene Fabisch, IBCLC/RLC
Brockton WIC Breastfeeding Coordinator

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