Hospital-WIC Collaboration
The North Central Breastfeeding Task Force wants to help all hospitals and WIC agencies in our region to form partnerships. We believe these partnerships will strengthen breastfeeding support, provide better continuity of care, and improve outcomes for the mothers in our communities. Read below for steps you can take to get started.
Why should Hospitals and WIC form partnerships?
Benefits for Families
- Extra breastfeeding support in the hospital with Peer Counselor visits.
- Extra breastfeeding support after discharge.
- Access to breast pumps (loaners through WIC, loaners through the hospital, insurance pumps).
Benefits for Hospitals
- Hospital team alerted to families that need extra support prior to discharge
- WIC provides prenatal education so families are more prepared at delivery
- WIC can promote hospital-led prenatal support
Benefits for WIC
- Outreach to eligible families to increase caseload
- Catch current WIC families soon after delivery to offer support and schedule appointments
- Peer Counselor programs can meet goal of contacting new parents in first 7 days postpartum
How to establish a partnership with a local WIC Agency
Find Your Local WIC Agency
How to identify your local WIC Agency
- Use SignupWIC.com and enter the ZIP code of your hospital
- You’ll be given a list of the closest WIC agencies
- Use your State’s DHS Office Locator
- For Illinois: IDHS: Office Locator (state.il.us)
- Select your county, and you’ll see all the WIC agencies serving your county. You may need to narrow down further based on other geographical information or try a neighboring county if your hospital serves families from multiple counties.
- Each WIC agency will have a Coordinator or Manager. They may have a separate Breastfeeding Coordinator
WIC Staff Visiting the Hospital
- Generally, WIC staff visit the hospital as a Volunteer and go through all appropriate training and paperwork required
- This may include background checks, proof of vaccinations, and any other registration paperwork
- WIC staff should be provided with an ID badge (volunteer or otherwise) to identify themselves as non-hospital support.
- Identify who the point person will be for the WIC staff when they come to the hospital
- The WIC staff will check in/out with this person at arrival and before leaving
- The WIC staff will refer clients that need care outside their scope of practice
- The WIC staff will contact this person if their schedule needs to change or they will not be at the hospital on a scheduled day
- The point person will pull the list of clients for the WIC staff to see
- Identify time and frequency of visits
- Generally, 2-4 hours once or twice a week, depending on the size of the hospital and number of deliveries
- The WIC staff should not be replacing hospital lactation staff but providing additional care for WIC and WIC-eligible families
- Identify who the WIC staff will see
- Print a “face sheet” for families on the unit including their name, room number, and insurance information.
- Non-medicaid families may also be eligible for WIC services based on their income or other services they receive. If time, the WIC staff can see these families and screen for WIC eligibility.
Hospital Referring to WIC
- Identify who will be referring the clients to WIC (social workers, lactation team, nurses, etc.)
- Ask local WIC agency for outreach materials
- Basic information on what WIC is for families
- Contact information for the local WIC office
- Breastfeeding peer counselor contact information, if applicable
- Have families sign a consent form for their information to be released to the WIC agency
- Collaborate with your local WIC agency on best way to share family information (secure email, fax, etc.)
Sample Policies and Procedures
Sample WIC Policy & Procedure
Sample Hospital WIC Referral
Do you have resources you’d like to share with
North Central Breastfeeding Task Force?
Share your resources to help other task force members form partnerships and improve breastfeeding outcomes for the families they serve.