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Poverty, women and babies
Almost 13,600 San Joaquin County women had babies last year. Among them, 2,630 had incomes below the federal poverty threshold – $21,200 for a family of four. That’s nearly 1 in 5 babies born into poverty in our county.
In reporting today’s story about changes in the federal Women, Infants and Children program that, in part, aim to strongly encourage breastfeeding among participants, I learned that breastfeeding rates tend to be lower among low-income women, and lower still among low-income women of color.
I asked Julie Grunksy, of the Delta Health Care WIC program why that might be. She said it’s multifaceted. For one thing, she said, “low-income women often are working, and that is a perceived obstacle.”
Where they work might be too. Women enrolled in the WIC program, by definition, tend to have lower-paying jobs. Jobs that often don’t come with health benefits or flexibility in scheduling.
There’s also a question of job security, according to this report from the California WIC Association. Low-income mothers might be so worried about jeopardizing their jobs – especially after a maternity leave – that they are reluctant to assert their rights for breastfeeding accommodation.