Support for You and Your Baby
Breastfeeding is a healthful, convenient, and cost-effective way to nourish your baby and strengthen their immune system. Our Breastfeeding Peer Counseling offers breastfeeding support and education to women enrolled in the WIC Program who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or have just had a baby.
Service offerings
Breastfeeding Peer Counseling works to improve breastfeeding support, initiation, and duration rates to improve the overall health of babies and young children. Through these services, you’ll have access to:
- Telephone consultations
- Hospital visits
- Support groups and classes
- Breast pumps for eligible mothers if covered through health insurance
- Breast pump use assistance
- Outreach to hospitals and physicians for additional breastfeeding services
Benefits of breastfeeding
Per the Illinois Department of Human Services, we acknowledge breastfeeding as the ideal nutrition for infants. Breastfeeding nourishes your baby, delivers antibodies to help build up their immune system, and can lower their risk of certain diseases. Plus, there are plenty of benefits of breastfeeding for mothers too, such as aiding childbirth recovery and fostering physical and emotional bonding with your new baby.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends exclusively breastfeeding your baby for the first six months, continuing breastfeeding for two years, and then as long as desired by you and your child.
For more information about Breastfeeding Peer Counseling or to make an appointment, please call 217-854-7272 and follow the prompts.
This institution is an equal opportunity provider.