Our Peer Counselors Need Your Support!

Tell Congress: Fund WIC Breastfeeding Peer Counselors!

There is a chance that Breastfeeding Peer Counseling will not be funded in the future. This is one of the breastfeeding interventions that has had a dramatic impact on breastfeeding rates in many states. Since the USDA started funding Peer Counseling (which started in 2005), Missouri WIC breastfeeding initiation rates, for example, have climbed from 46% to 63%. Recent research shows that if 80% of all infants were breastfed, $10.5 billion in healthcare costs would be saved and 741 infant deaths would be prevented.¹ If there was 90% compliance, the savings would be $13 billion in healthcare costs and 911 infant deaths prevented per year.
If you feel this is an important program to continue funding, the United States Breastfeeding Committee (USBC) has made it very easy to contact Congress to make them aware of your support.