Thank you Margo and Rowena for clarifying and CORRECTING the efforts  WIC 
is making to support breastfeeding.
WIC is NOT the reason women chose to bottle feed. As Rowena explained, many 
 WIC offices are the most breastfeeding place in town. I know this is true 
is  some areas of my state too. They are much more breastfeeding friendly 
than the  local hospital or the doctor's office. There definitely some clinics 
that  have more work to do. However, as a national program we have 
thousands people to  bring on board. The National WIC Association just published and 
distributed at  their Breastfeeding Summit, Six Steps to Achieve 
Breastfeeding Goals at WIC  Clinics. We know not everyone is "there" yet, but 
providing goals to help them  achieve what we know are best practices is a huge 
first step. I will be  distributing this document again and discussing them at 
the next national WIC  conference in May.
How many other institutions even have a National Breastfeeding Summit? Only 
 one other (ABM) that I know of.
Incentive funds were just distributed by USDA to 15 states and  territories 
with the largest increases in breastfeeding initiation. Another huge  step.
The new breastfeeding food package is designed to be an incentive  for the 
mother who chooses breastfeeding.
Exclusive breastfeeding it the national goal of the National WIC  
Association. 
In my state, Indiana, we expect all job descriptions to state supporting  
breastfeeding is part of every job at WIC. And that new hires are told this  
before they begin. Does any other institution do that? Not many.
Yes, we have work to do? Yes. But we know it and we are definitely moving  
in the right direction. There are so many other areas where we can look that 
 discourage breastfeeding. Society and it's attitude toward breastfeeding 
as  a norm is the largest overall problem. The fact that so many babies are  
supplemented in the hospital, as Kiran Saluja testified about to Congress, 
all  point to the fact that we ALL have so much work to do.
WIC is not perfect. But we are taking strides to change.  I do not see  a 
lot of change in many other very large institutions.
Please do not blame WIC for every mother who asks for formula. Societal  
pressures on the mother are much more overwhelming. Assuming she needs formula 
 "just in case" does not come from WIC. We teach breastfeeding from the 
first  visit. This comes from the knowledge that breastfeeding is not the norm 
in the  US. The belief that "no one can do this or should do this" comes 
from an  underlying belief system, not from just one institution.
Rather than blaming one very large governmental agency that is working  
toward change, we need to all look at how we can work together to make  
breastfeeding the norm.
Change must come from within all of us.
Carole Peterson MS, IBCLC
Chair National WIC Association Breastfeeding Committee
 
 

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