Peer Support Counselor Programs: Mississippi

Mississippi Peer Counselor Program

The Mississippi WIC Program employs more than one hundred lactation consultants, lactation specialists, and peer counselors to provide effective outreach services to low-income prenatal and breastfeeding women.  The peer counseling component of the WIC Program in Mississippi was launched in 1990 after one health district reported an increase in breastfeeding rates directly as a result of the mother-to-mother counseling provided.  

Mississippi's peer counseling program is organized into three levels of intervention: 

1. Lay or peer counselors make monthly telephone calls to provide basic information and support to new WIC mothers.  To qualify as a peer counselor, a woman must have had a minimum of 6 months personal breastfeeding experience.
   
2. Lactation specialists provide clinic counseling, home and hospital visits, group instruction, they coordinate support groups, issue breast pumps, conduct community outreach, and certify mothers and babies for WIC services.  To qualify as a lactation specialist, a woman must have earned a college degree and have had at a minimum of one year personal breastfeeding experience.
   
3. Lactation Consultants assist high-risk mothers and babies, make hospital rounds, and often provide training to other health professionals.  To qualify as a lactation consultant, a woman must be a board certified RN or RD with a minimum of one year's personal breastfeeding experience. 

Currently, program staff are following approximately 1000 high-risk infants and mothers, helping to manage such challenges as infant prematurity, breast refusal, thrush, sore and cracked nipples, breast infection, and relactation.

The keys to the success of the Mississippi WIC Peer Counselor Program:

• Staff are on call 24/7 to assist mothers with problems,
• They are well-trained peers able to share from personal experiences.  Staff receive intensive training both in counseling skills and in the latest breastfeeding management techniques, a constantly changing field, to assist and empower mothers.
• Staff take the time needed and follow mothers from the time they are first certified for WIC through the first few weeks of the newborn's life.
• Peer Counselors are committed and passionate about helping mothers enjoy a positive breastfeeding experience.  They often make many sacrifices of personal time and resources to be available to their clients.
• Staff are members of the health care team.  They certify breastfeeding mothers and babies for WIC; routinely refer all clients for immunizations and family planning; refer maternity patients experiencing problem to appropriate professionals; and make appropriate referrals to other social and medical services as appropriate.

In 1995, the CDC conducted an evaluation study of the Mississippi Peer Counselor Program and found it to be highly effective in increasing breastfeeding rates; surely a model for other states to follow. (Grummer-Strawn, Evaluation of Breastfeeding Promotion through Peer Counseling in Mississippi Clinics, Maternal Child Health Journal, 1997).  

Contact information:

Address:
Mississippi State Department of Health
570 East Woodrow Wilson Drive
P.O. Box 1700
Jackson, MS 39215

Telephone: (601) 576-7100 or 
Toll-free in-state: 1-800-489-7670

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This page last updated July 23, 2003