Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention WIC Nutrition Program

Effective: October 1, 2011 Policy No. FM-11 Revised: October 1, 2021

Breastfeeding Promotion Costs

Authority

2 CFR § 200 USDA Breastfeeding Policy and Guidance document, July 2016

Policy

1. Local Agencies shall account for funds spent to promote breastfeeding. Breastfeeding promotion and support expenditures shall be allowable WIC expenses as defined in this policy.

2. Expenditures for breastfeeding promotion shall be:

2.1 Attributable to breastfeeding promotion

2.2 An allowable expense

2.3 In addition to the seventeen percent (17%) nutrition education requirement

2.4 Reasonable and necessary

2.5 Documented

Procedures

1. The following are allowable breastfeeding promotion costs:

1.1 Salaries and benefits of:

1.1.1 WIC staff who deliver educational and direct client services related to breastfeeding

1.1.2 WIC staff who deliver/attend training on breastfeeding promotion and support

1.1.3 WIC staff who participate in state and local planning committees dedicated to breastfeeding promotion

1.1.4 WIC staff who organize volunteers and community groups to support breastfeeding WIC participants

1.2 Honorariums and travel expenses of non-WIC professionals to deliver training on breastfeeding promotion and support. 1.3 Costs to develop/procure educational materials, instructional curricula, etc., related to breastfeeding promotion and support, including interpreters and translators for breastfeeding promotion and support materials.

1.4 Travel and other expenses incurred by WIC staff related to any of the above items.

1.5 With prior State Agency approval, costs of service agreements with other organizations, public or private, to undertake training and direct service delivery to WIC participants, concerning breastfeeding promotion and support

1.6 Aids that directly support the initiation and continuation of breastfeeding, such as: breast pumps, supplemental nursing systems, and nipple shields . Allowable accessories include human milk storage bags, breast pump adaptors, certain nursing bras, and nursing shawls or covers. 1.7 Breastfeeding incentive items must contain a breastfeeding message and be reasonable and necessary for the promotion and support of breastfeeding. They must promote, the breastfeeding message and the entire Maine CDC WIC program, not the Local Agency.

1.8 Incentive items may include the following if they promote breastfeeding as described above:

1.8.1 Pencils, pens

1.8.2 Magnets

1.8.3 Balloons

1.8.4 Stickers, buttons

1.8.5 Crayons, coloring books

1.8.6 Infant t-shirts/bibs

1.8.7 Water bottles, stadium cups, plastic cups

1.8.8 Books with a nutrition message

2. The following costs are not allowable breastfeeding promotion costs:

2.1 Breastfeeding aids that do not directly support the initiation and continuation of breastfeeding and are not within the scope of the WIC Program, such as topical creams, ointments, Vitamin E, other medicinals, foot stools, infant scales for use by the mother at home, baby bottles, nursing pillows, or nursing blouses.

2.2 Costs of promotional campaigns/items (print, radio, television) aimed at a general audience concerning breastfeeding, unless materials may also be legitimately used with WIC participants or trainees in an educational context.

2.3 Items of nominal value (less than $3.00) that have no breastfeeding message.

2.4 Breastfeeding incentive items, if funding is limited and other more pressing needs 2 will go unaddressed (e.g., contact with lactation consultant for high-risk counseling).

2.5 Special equipment for general use in WIC clinics such as baby weight scales marketed for use with high-risk, breastfed infants.

2.6 The purchase or lease of breast pumps. Breast pumps are food expenditure and must be ordered through the State Agency.

2.7 Contact the State Agency breastfeeding coordinator for approval of any incentive items not listed above.

3. Allowable breastfeeding promotion costs require sufficient and appropriate documentation.

4. Breastfeeding Peer Counseling activities are not allowable breastfeeding expenditure and should be recorded and reported separately. Financial Management (FM) FM-11 Breastfeeding Promotion Costs 3