Baby Friendly Hospitals

Not all hospitals are friendly or helpful in starting breastfeeding with your baby. Some hospitals routinely separate mother and baby for no medical reason, give formula or sugar water via bottles without consulting the mother, and press "breastfeeding support" kits on you that are filled with formula (we call these "breastfeeding sabotage kits"). Having a baby is hard enough, you need a hospital friendly to you and your baby!

The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative is a global campaign launched by UNICEF and the World Health Organization to support all mother's in their right to choose breastfeeding for their babies. To earn the "Baby Friendly Hospital" award, facilities have to show that they have adopted certain practices to support successful breastfeeding.

So far, over 10,000 hospitals around the world have achieved Baby Friendly status. Currently in the USA, only a handful of hospitals and birthing centers have been awarded the Baby Friendly designation. More than 300 facilities representing most of the 50 states have filed a Certificate of Intent and are currently working on achieving the award. Click here to find out more about The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative- USA ,and to see if your local hospital or birthing center is Baby Friendly.

The following statement is from a joint World Health Organization/UNICEF document published in 1989 by WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.

Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding

Every facility providing maternity services and care for newborn infants should:

1.Have a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff.
2.Train all health care staff in skills necessary to implement this policy.
3.Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding.
4.Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within a half-hour of birth.
5.Show mothers how to breastfeed, and how to maintain lactation even if they should be separated from their infants.
6.Give newborn infants no food or drink other than breastmilk, unless medically indicated.
7.Practice rooming-in: allow mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day.
8.Encourage breastfeeding on demand.
9.Give no artificial teats or pacifiers (also called dummies or soothers) to breastfeeding infants.
10.Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or clinic