Jane said, << "In next room, mom says, " I want to breastfeed but I want
the WIC formula so I'm telling them I'm bottle-feeding so I can have the
formula just in case." "No, I don't care about the breastfeeding food
package. I get food stamps and I don't eat that much anyway." But she
was angry because the nurse had given a bottle before bringing the baby
out after pediatrician rounds. What's wrong with this picture? How are
we ever going to help mothers decide to breastfeed when they see it as
economically advantageous to formula-feed? ">>

This is what I feared would happen when WIC changed the food packages -
that WIC participants would deny breastfeeding in order to receive
formula for the baby in the first month. WIC is studying the effect of
this change in the birth-month food package to see how it affects
breastfeeding, and I am looking forward to the results. Hopefully the
cases like that mom will prove to be in the minority.  But my concern
was that the cart was being put before the horse - that by only giving
one can of formula, during the first month of life, to any woman who
admits she's breastfeeding, women were being asked to believe in their
prospects for breastfeeding, to have faith that that first month of
breastfeeding is going to go rather well....in settings where in fact
they have very little of the support and information they need in order
to be ABLE to breastfeed successfully.

This woman wants the formula "just in case". If she didn't doubt her
ability to breastfeed fully, she'd simply nurse and be glad for the
extra food.  The change in the first month of WIC's food package for
breastfed infants doesn't eliminate that doubt, or correct its causes.
It just puts women in the position of having to commit up front, not
just to breastfeeding, but to their LEVEL OF CONFIDENCE about how
breastfeeding is going to go. And IMO a great many WIC participants
simply are not ready for that yet....


 
Regina Roig-Romero BS, IBCLC
Sr Lactation Consultant - WIC Breastfeeding Program
Phone: (786) 336-1333 x 16219
Fax: (786) 336-1302
Email: [log in to unmask]

Visit us online at http://www.dadehealth.org
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