WIC Is Vital for Moms and Babies

by Christy Yao Pellicioni

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This week has been a hard one for many families, particularly in the Washington, DC, area. The government shutdown has left many uncertain about employment and government benefits. According to Reuters, this includes the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, generally referred to as WIC. WIC provides nutritious foods and support for those who are pregnant or breastfeeding and children under the age of five. The funding for WIC needs to be reauthorized by congress every year, so until Washington approves a budget, funding for the program is in limbo. 

Reuters also reports that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has said that it will continue to administer WIC as long as funds allow, but since the fiscal year is coming to a close, the funds could be drying up sooner rather than later. Different states have different plans for how they’re going to keep funding WIC as long as possible, but Georgia Machell, president and CEO of the National WIC Association, fears that WIC recipients could be at risk of losing their benefits if the shutdown lasts more than a week. Republican senator John Hoeven, who oversees agricultural funding, reports WIC funding could run out by October 15. 

This crisis really hits home for my family. We have been benefitting from the Women, Infants, and Children program ever since I first qualified for Medicaid when I was pregnant with my son in 2021. I didn’t think I qualified for WIC, but then I got a call from a peppy-sounding woman at the Baltimore County Department of Health one day while lying on my couch, nauseous from my first pregnancy. At that moment I did not want to think about food, but I knew getting proper nutrition would be crucial to the development of my baby. Soon I was signed up for the WIC program and went to a WIC clinic of southern Baltimore County, a well maintained haven in an otherwise forgotten-looking neighborhood, not far from our one-bedroom apartment. At the clinic, my height, weight, and iron levels were checked. A kind young woman brought my husband and I into her sunny office and explained the different kinds of foods we could get from WIC and how to use our benefits. She helped us download the WIC app, where we could check what foods were eligible for the benefit. She even pulled out a book of checks for the Farmer’s Market Nutrition Program (FMNP), with a flyer on a farmer’s market they were having right there at the clinic, and said, “Take two. We have extras!” We used our benefits diligently, and we found out that we could even participate in a Money Matching program where we got tokens to use at the local farmer’s markets for every dollar of our FMNP we spent. That meant that after buying the eligible produce, we could support small businesses by buying items like bread and cheese. 

After I had my son, WIC continued to help me immensely. At five days old, we took our baby to his first pediatrician’s appointment, where I was sternly asked, “How have you been nourishing this child?” Even though I was giving Nathaniel a mix of breast milk and formula, he still had dropped from his birth weight — six pounds, seven ounces — to just five pounds. I was devastated, and I tried nursing him all day, in between bottles. But I just couldn’t figure out how to properly position him or get him to latch. I tried to use what I had learned in our breastfeeding class, which we took before he was born, and the information and tools I had received at the hospital. Nothing is more frustrating than feeling like you cannot do what should be the most natural thing in the world despite your best efforts. Add that to being freshly postpartum, recovering from an emergency C-section, and experiencing extreme sleep deprivation caused by a mix of nursing and pumping every few hours, and I was a mess!

Luckily, I could rely on WIC. Even though we had moved to a new county to be closer to family before the baby was born, my transition to a new WIC clinic was seamless. It was right near our house, in the basement of the same building I had once gotten braces in. Despite it not being as physically sunny as the office in Baltimore, the room couldn’t have been more lively. The chilly January air got brushed off by the warmth of the clinic staff and the smiles of the children playing in the waiting room. When they weighed my tiny baby, I jumped for joy (no small feat when you were hurriedly sedated and sliced open just a week before!) to learn that Nathaniel had gained a few ounces! I then asked if I could speak to a lactation consultant because I was not as successful at breastfeeding as I had hoped to be. I was able to go into the lactation consultant’s office only a few minutes later. She was extremely kind and supportive, showing me how to position Nathaniel on a nursing pillow and suggesting what kind of chair we should sit in. In the hospital, I had gotten a surprise visit from their lactation consultant, who burst in saying she was concerned about my baby’s weight. She made a weirdly suggestive joke about my husband helping me pump, proclaimed I had flat nipples, then left me with a nipple shield and a nipple pump, things I had no idea existed five minutes before. Her visit left me feeling overwhelmed with more questions than answers. The WIC lactation consultant, on the other hand, took her time. Best of all, she told me I didn’t need to pump at night, which meant I could finally get at least an hour of sleep at a time. I left the appointment feeling so relieved, like I finally was doing something right as a parent. The following day was Nathaniel’s bris, the Jewish circumcision ceremony, and I was able to confidently comfort my sweet little guy with nursing after the ordeal.

I am forever grateful to the WIC program and our lactation consultant that chilly January day. She has no idea how much she helped a new mom who was in the pit of despair. I was able to nurse my son until we were both ready to wean, and we supplemented with healthy food and cow’s milk courtesy of the WIC program. Now I am doing the same with my beautiful 10-month-old girl. Of course, I am hopeful that my family won’t always be in the financial position to qualify for Medicaid and WIC, but while my husband and I try to make gains in our education and careers, these programs have been vital to our family’s health and success.