Since 1974, the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program has built a legacy of healthy eating and continues to be one of the nation’s most successful and cost-effective nutrition intervention programs. Millions of pregnant women, infants and children have benefited from WIC through its accessibility to healthy foods as well as nutrition education, breastfeeding resources, and access to various community referral programs. Along with promoting healthy eating and nutrition to WIC participants, one of the most successful components of the WIC program is breastfeeding initiation which grew significantly within the late 1990’s early 2000’s. Since then, WIC has been successful in supporting mothers with initiating breastfeeding and promoting breastfeeding as the optimal infant feeding choice.
At the local level, Cameron County Public Health WIC works diligently to promote breastfeeding efforts by ensuring that all moms are well-informed about breastfeeding and supported with any concerns they may have along the way. Whether it’s hosting a celebration or a painting activity for breastfeeding moms in recognition of World Breastfeeding Month in August, creating a breastfeeding support group or offering breastfeeding peer counselor support, our main goal is to make a mom’s breastfeeding journey as smooth as possible by offering support every step of the way.
In addition to supporting moms in our community, CCPH WIC has also established the CCPH Milk Depot site. This depot, which began in Cameron County in 2017, is a community-based collection site for breastmilk donations by approved donors to be used for premature and ill babies to improve their health outcomes. The CCPH Milk Depot continues to grow stronger each year, with 2024 being our biggest year of collection as a donor site. To date, the Cameron County Milk Depot site has received and shipped an estimated 4,500 ounces of donated breastmilk to Austin Milk Bank, the centralized milk bank in Texas.
Through breastfeeding support and banked human milk, mothers become more aware of the value of their own milk. Many WIC moms who have donated their breastmilk report the rewarding experience of helping other mothers and babies. If you’d like to learn more about the breastmilk donation process or how to become an approved donor mom, visit the Mothers’ Milk Bank of Austin at www.milkbank.org.
