Talk to me about WIC peer counselors

[Peony]

I have been offered a job creating and running the local WIC office's peer counselor program. I do not know anything other then the absolute basics about WIC or peer counselors. This program has never existed at this WIC office so I will be starting from scratch if I accept this job, that will allow me some freedom. So talk to me, anyone a peer counselor, or did you like the ones at WIC? Maybe you felt things could of been done differently, tell me about that.



This offer came out of nowhere, and I'm wanting to know what awesome things I might be able to do with this program to tempt me into maybe accepting the job. I have a couple days to decide otherwise the grant will be turned down, but I wasn't exactly looking for employment of this nature at the moment!

[sewaneecook]

Would you specifically be working with PG and BFing moms? If so, I can give you the email of a local woman who works for WIC and has done fantastic work. She has all sorts of resources for providing breast pumps, nuring bras, nursing pads, BFing info, support, etc. I'm not sure if the things she gives out are donated or if she has funds to buy them. Let me know and I can PM you her email.

[Bookworm?]

ME! ME! I am doing the exact same thing! I am the first breastfeeding counselor our WIC office has had and I've been there about a year. Our office is very small so what I've done may not apply to your office. I knew very little about WIC or how it was going to work when I started. I still haven't gotten around to doing many of the things I intended to do when I started. I am the only one doing the job still. I only work 6 hours a week and there is not enough money for me to do much more or hire another counselor. I basically make contact with all pregnant moms, try to follow up through their pregnancy and after their baby is born. I get to "help" with the infant feeding class. My biggest struggle has been said class. The woman who does it does not seem to want me there or see the importance of my job. Otherwise the rest of the staff has been very supportive. I think I've made a little bit of a difference. It is certainly far different than working with LLL moms. For me it is worth the short hours and little pay just to be working with moms and babies. I sometimes take my 3 yo with me, my other kids are in school. I'm happy to be doing it and hope to add to what I'm already doing this year. PM me or ask away if you have any specific questions.

[Peony]

Thanks! I'll PM you later Bookworm?.

[blessedwithboys]

i worked as a peer counselor in the mid 90's for about a year. the LC would make the offer to the new mom, especially if they were in their teens, as I was about 19yo at the time,and if they accepted the offer she would call me to give me the names and all the birth details. then i would call the mom and intro myself and ask her if she had any specific ques. and basically let her know i was there at any hr if she needed help. it was up to my discretion to make home visits.

i didnt get paid for any of this, it was all volunteer, but after a yr it parlayed into a 20/wk ofer to take over for the IBCLC as a para. i had to decline tho bc ds was too young for me to leave. i heard recently that the prgm had been stopped due to lack of volunteers.

[guitarmama]

I'm a WIC bfpc and love it! Are there any specific things you want to know? Our office has 2 pc's and one IBCLC. The pc's make contacts with the mom's and refer anyone who has a bfing issue outside our range to the IBCLC. In our office, we are supposed to be contacting a certain percentage of mom's either by phone or face to face. It's really hard to get a hold of people by phone and even harder to communicate well with them that way. I'm only there 6 hours a week, so I don't get to see as many moms face to face as I'd like to and as I need to. We are trying to get an infant feeding class/ nursing moms group started to help solve this problem, but it's not off the ground yet. If you can think of any specific questions about how we run our program, feel free to pm me.

[Peony]

I finally was able to get a packet from WIC today about the program. I read through it all tonight, I'm very interested. It really does seem like a perfect fit for me. No questions at the moment, well the ones I have seem limited to the local office especially about the supervising role, which scares me the most! Hearing from others was very helpful. I know I'll have more questions about how your programs are run later, we are so rural and no offices for hours in any direction has this program so I won't be able to observe. I had just been mulling over maybe not sitting for the IBCLC exam in 2010 like originally planned, but I'm rethinking that now. DS is only 7 months and I wasn't in a rush since I hadn't planned on working right now, but since I have the education/hours, and now possibly this job, I might as well.

Thanks again!

[kriket]

PM MoMaria

she is our peer counselor at the WIC clinic in my area. I love her she's pretty great.

If you don't mind me asking, how did you come about being offered this job? I have secretly wanted to be a WIC peer counselor

[Peony]

LOL, I just walked in the door from meeting with WIC. I'm going to take the job! The pay is eh, but benefits might be a possibility, and the potential is great, which makes it worth while for me.


I got offered the job because I'm the LLL leader in the area. I came home to a message on my machine one day asking if I was interested in part time work, once I talked to the WIC office, and they discovered I was an RN, then they never bothered to look for anyone else for the position. I'm very nervous about hiring, training, and supervising peer counselors, apparently the WIC office wants me to be directly involved in even filling out all the paperwork to apply for the program. This will be entirely my baby and that is scary!

[SallyN]

I know a bunch of WIC BF peer counselors in the central illinois area. Depending on where you are, there may be BF PCs at other county health departments in your state that you can connect with? If not, PM me and I can connect you with some in IL.

[jocelynr]

This isn't with WIC anymore, but they used to be.

http://www.bellasbreastfeeding.org/