Sun River Health provides the highest quality of comprehensive primary, preventative and behavioral health services to all who seek it, regardless of insurance status and ability to pay, especially for the underserved and vulnerable. Sun River Health is a Federally Qualified, Non-Profit Health Center serving communities in Suffolk, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess, Ulster, Sullivan, Columbia and Westchester County.

We are seeking a full-time WIC Breastfeeding Peer Counselor to join our Middletown site.

Para-professional support person, a WIC mother with personal breastfeeding experience who serves as a peer with a commitment to promote and support breastfeeding women and their families by providing basic breastfeeding information, documents contacts, makes referrals by yielding to Breastfeeding Coordinator and functions as a member of the Local Agency team.

Essential Functions:

· Help mothers plan for a return to work/school that supports the continuation of breastfeeding.

· Provide anticipatory guidance to reduce the occurrence of problems.

· Supports breastfeeding participants from pregnancy through growth spurts, introducing solid foods and weaning.

· Provide information on additional sources of help to the breastfeeding mother.

· Actively promotes World Breastfeeding Week activities and other events to support breastfeeding

· Keep accurate records of contacts with mothers using correct forms, documenting in NYWIC, and keeps up to date electronic data.

· Identify signs of a normal course of breastfeeding including breastfeeding frequency and duration, infant feeding cues, and normal infant weigh gain and tooling patterns.

· Be able to demonstrate various positioning techniques for mother and baby; increasing or decreasing the breast milk supply, manual expression of milk; and safe & effective collection/storage of breast milk.

· Assist in recruiting candidates for peer counselor training.

· Provides participant centered support to families individually or in a group setting

· Maintain all required records as well as performing appropriate WICSIS documentation of services rendered.

· Provide information on all aspects of lactation within guidelines addressed in training, including information on additional sources of help for the breastfeeding mother.

· With the use of participant-centered techniques help participants identify their breastfeeding concerns, barriers and solutions to best meet participants needs

· Understand how the cultural attitudes and practices of the community impact on breastfeeding.

· Promote breastfeeding in the community, workplace and health care system.

· Be able to demonstrate/teach using breastfeeding props various positioning techniques for mother and baby; increasing or decreasing the breast milk supply; manual expression of milk; and safe & effective collection/storage of breast milk.

· Be a resource for mothers and make connections with other community programs and services. Make referrals to the breastfeeding coordinator or other lactation specialist, as necessary.

· Provide basic and timely problem-solving and support and yield to IBCLC or Breastfeeding Coordinator when problems are out of their scope of practice

· Refers participants to the Designated Breastfeeding Expert, QN, or other community resource for situations beyond scope of practice

· Follows up on referrals in a timely manner

· Assists DBE or QN with breast pump assembly demonstrations

EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE:

High School Diploma or GED required