Breastfeeding Peer Counselor

Sun River Health provides the highest quality of comprehensive primary, preventative and behavioral health services to all who see 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. Sun River Health is currently seeking a full-time WIC Breastfeeding Peer Counselor to join our team supporting the Middletown, NY 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 Duties and Responsibilities for a WIC Breastfeeding Peer Counselor:

• Provide information on all aspects of lactation within guidelines addressed in training, including information on additional sources of help for the breastfeeding mother
• Actively promotes World Breastfeeding Week activities and other events to support breastfeeding
• 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
• Maintain all required records as well as performing appropriate WICSIS documentation of services rendered
• Assist in recruiting candidates for peer counselor training
• Provides participant centered support to families individually or in a group setting
• Provide information on additional sources of help to the breastfeeding mother
• 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
• Keep accurate records of contacts with mothers using correct forms, documenting in NYWIC, and keeps up to date electronic data
• 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
• With the use of participant-centered techniques help participants identify their breastfeeding concerns, barriers and solutions to best meet participants needs
• Identify signs of a normal course of breastfeeding including breastfeeding frequency and duration, infant feeding cues, and normal infant weigh gain and tooling patterns
• Understand how the cultural attitudes and practices of the community impact on breastfeeding
• Provide anticipatory guidance to reduce the occurrence of problems
• Help mothers plan for a return to work/school that supports the continuation of breastfeeding
• Provide basic and timely problem-solving and support and yield to IBCLC or Breastfeeding Coordinator when problems are out of their scope of practice
• Promote breastfeeding in the community, workplace and health care system
• Supports breastfeeding participants from pregnancy through growth spurts, introducing solid foods and weaning
• 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 breastpump assembly demonstrations

Minimum Education Requirement: High School diploma/GED

Minimum Work-Related Experience: 2-4 years

Job Type: full-time
 

Hourly Pay Range: $20.00 - $21.50 per hour

Responsibilities:

Relation to Mission
The mission of Sun River Health is to increase access to comprehensive primary and preventive health care and to improve the health status of our community, especially for the underserved and vulnerable.

Equal Employment Opportunity
Sun River Health provides equal employment opportunities to all qualified individuals without regard to race, creed, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, sexual preference, or non-disqualifying physical or mental handicap or disability in each aspect of the human resources function.

Americans with Disabilities Act
Applicants as well as employees who are or become disabled must be able to perform the essential job functions either unaided or with reasonable accommodation. The organization shall determine reasonable accommodation on a case-by-case basis in accordance with applicable law.

Job Responsibilities
The following statements reflect the general duties, responsibilities and competencies considered necessary to perform the essential functions of the job and should not be considered as a detailed description of all the work requirements of the position. Sun River Health may change the specific job duties with or without prior notice based on the needs of the organization.

Salary : $20 - $22