Hi all,
I have been lurking on the list for about a month and
a half (?) now while finishing my fourth semester in
grad school, but I guess I should finally introduce
myself.
I am a second year MPH student at the University of
Michigan. I have been tailoring my program to include
classes in MCH with a major interest in breastfeeding.
I expect to graduate in December, and then work for a
migrant farmworker health organization. I am also
interested in pursuing lactation certification,
childbirth education certification, or both. I have
one son, 3 yrs old, who I breastfed till 23 months,
and another son due May 30 who I intend to breastfeed
as long as he needs.
I also decided to post in response to the recommended
changes to WIC. I certainly don't mean to offend
anyone who works directly with the WIC program,
especially on my first post! :) So with that preface:
I recently did a paper for a food/nutrition policy
class regarding WIC, and found out that while WIC has
many structural elements that support breastfeeding
education and promotion, such as state and local
breastfeeding coordinators and special attention to
breastfeeding promotion in its nutrition education
services, state WIC programs engage in a formula
rebate system in which artificial baby milk
manufacturers bid for state WIC contracts to be the
sole approved artificial baby milk brand offered to
WIC clients. In return, the state WIC agency receives
a rebate from the artificial baby milk manufacturer
for each can of artificial baby milk purchased through
WIC. During fiscal year 2001-02, artificial baby milk
companies provided $1.5 billion (with a B) to WIC
state agencies through the WIC infant formula rebate
system (USDA, Food and Nutrition Service. Mar. 16,
2005. “Frequently Asked Questions About WIC” website:
http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/FAQs/faq.htm).
So there are still plenty of challenges facing the WIC
program. I feel badly for the WIC directors and
breastfeeding promotion folks, because the artificial
baby milk competetive bid process must be a structural
budget-saving feature that is probably viewed
positively by state and federal budget watchers, and
if a particular administrator were to try to decline
participation in this process, their projected budget
would jump by a large margin and would never be
approved - so they seem to be quite stuck. But there's
got to be a better way, no?
I was a WIC user for a year or so before starting
graduate school so I know how small, local WIC
agencies can also miss the boat due to lack of
resources, but also misreading their clientele and the
lack of clear national program standards. THere's a
lot of work to be done for sure.
Karen Dugas, MPH candidate 12/05
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