WIC Program Improves Maternal Health And Infant Health. Do you need help during your pregnancy period? Do you want to improve your child’s health? Then, WIC Program has an easy solution. This is a popular program of the US government. ‘Women, Infants, and Children program usually provides special facilities to pregnant women and younger children.
WIC Program is a very beneficial service. They give various benefits, services, and classes to pregnant women and the parents of the child who is under WIC coverage. This way they can improve infant and maternal health.
However, this program needs some basic requirements for providing you the best service. That’s why you or your child need to meet some criteria. After getting the application, they can decide which supplements are best for you.
In this article, we will cover everything regarding WIC Program and the benefits you can get. Additionally, we will also cover how this program can improve your health.
What is WIC Program?
The ‘Women, Infants, and Children’ program were started by the United States Department of Agriculture in 1974. The main goal of this program was to help low-income pregnant women. Plus, it also helps those children and infants whose parents have a low income.
This program is available in all fifty states of the United States. However, each state has its own regulation regarding WIC. Plus, this program is available in places like American Samoa, Virgin Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.
The regulations of this program are different in each state. State agencies usually take care of WIC administration. Moreover, the Federal Grants arrange the fund for this program. You can file an application at various places in New York including hospitals, schools, and WIC clinics.
Benefits of WIC Program
Well, it’s not unknown that WIC Program is very beneficial for women and children. However, many people don’t know what are the actual benefits of this service. If you are going to apply for the first time, you need to know about everything.
This program mainly offers foods and supplements to the applicants. However, they are expanding their service to give people a better experience.
Food Benefits
As we mentioned above, WIC Program provides various foods and supplements including fruits, vegetables, baby foods, eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt, peanut butter, canned fish, canned beans, and more.
Moreover, they arrange special supplements for women, infants, and children. For example, they offer iron-fortified infant formula and iron-fortified adult cereal to the applicants. Plus, they will offer special supplements to infants as per the medical report.
Other Benefits
WIC provides a free health check-up when you are applying for the service. However, you can do these tests individually. Moreover, this program WIC Program arranges various benefits for pregnant women including immunization screening, health screening, and breastfeeding counseling.
When you are applying for your children, they will arrange special classes for you. There, they will teach parents what children should eat as they grow. WIC arranges these classes every six months during the period. Parents can attend classes online.
Requirments of WIC Program
After knowing the benefits, we should learn about the eligibility of the WIC program. You know this service is available for low-income people. However, this is not the only requirement of this service. In the following, we are covering the requirements:
- Nutrition Risk –
This is an essential requirement for applicants. Nutrition risk is something that includes anemia, poor pregnancy outcome history, underweight, overweight, and more. An applicant needs at least one of these conditions to get the facility of WIC.
An applicant needs to take a ‘nutrition risk’ test from a health service provider. You can ask your doctor for this test. Alternatively, the WIC clinic also arranges these tests. They will check your height and weight and will do a blood test.
- Residency Requirement –
Each state has different requirements for the WIC program. However, if you want to get the service, you need to be a resident of the state. The administrator will check the residency requirements after you file an application.
For someone who belongs to an area where the Indian Tribal Organization is administrating, make sure your application meets the requirements of the ITO.
- Categorial Requirement –
The categorial requirement is also a crucial factor of the WIC program. For women and children, they need to meet these categories. Plus, each category is different, so make sure you are getting proper information before applying.
These categories include pregnant women (during pregnancy and after 6 weeks of birth), breastfeeding (up to the first birth of the newborn baby), infants (up to the first birthday of the infant), children (up to the fifth birthday of the child).
How WIC Program is Improving Maternal Health
Finally, you know the requirements and benefits of the WIC Program. However, is this program that effective? Well, you should know the answer. Since started in 1974, this program has become very popular among natives.
It has especially helped women improving maternal health during pregnancy. Let’s see how this program become so effective to improve maternal health:
- WIC has successfully reduced the rate of preeclampsia which is a dangerous condition during pregnancy. It involves fluid retention and high blood pressure.
- After being a part of the WIC Program, most women have gained a healthy weight during their pregnancy period.
- This program has reduced some crucial conditions like miscarriage and anemia of pregnant women.
- It has improved the longer gestational age. So, these women are not giving birth to premature babies.
- In fact, these mothers are having a good breastfeeding experience in the post-pregnancy period as WIC covers 6 weeks after the birth.
How WIC Program is Improving Infant Health
Besides maternal health, the WIC program is also improving the health of infants and children. Many parents are getting help from this service to give their children a good and healthy life. Moreover, this program helps parents by teaching them what their children need and what don’t.
In the following, we are covering what improvement we have seen among infant and children health:
- Children are having a better weight as they are growing up. This way they are having an appropriate weight.
- When a mother is under the WIC program, the infant is also having an appropriate birth size.
Where to Apply For WIC Program?
As we mentioned before, this program is available in all fifty states in the US. So, if you need this program you can visit these places including hospitals, schools, mobile clinics, county health departments, and public hosting sites.
After filing the application, the administrators will check the requirements. Then, you need to have some required tests on WIC clinics. Alternatively, you can ask your personal doctor for these tests.
Conclusion
Overall, WIC Program is a very beneficial program, especially for children up to age 5 and pregnant women. If someone from your family is getting benefits from WIC, it will help them by improving their health.
Moreover, you can get extra facilities for your family. For example, if your child comes under WIC coverage, you will get some classes for your child’s health. If you want to get more information, start your research. You can also ask your health provider about this program.
