Infant feeding decisions in the Missouri WIC Program.

A breastfeeding questionnaire was developed to help determine how we could better support our WIC mothers' efforts to breastfeed. The questionnaire was pilot tested in 12 local WIC agencies, wherein 878 participants returned the instrument for tabulation. Forty-six percent of the women who returned questionnaires initiated breastfeeding. The main support for women choosing to breastfeed came from their husbands. Women choosing not to breastfeed identified "self" as the person who most discouraged them from breastfeeding. Using this tool has helped to highlight the breastfeeding needs of our participants.