Human milk contains a unique blend of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats that cannot be obtained from formula. Breastfeeding provides infants with essential antibodies and nutrients and protects mothers from a variety of diseases including breast cancer, ovarian cancer, anemia, and osteoporosis. While it has been well established that breastfeeding is very beneficial for both a mother and her baby, often women do not receive adequate lactation support. The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative has been established by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to assist hospitals in providing breastfeeding mothers with information, confidence, and skills that will allow them to successfully initiate and continue breastfeeding their babies. This program identifies and gives special recognition to hospitals that have implemented the recommended guidelines to provide new mothers with optimal lactation support.
Baby Friendly Hospitals Help Breastfeeding Mothers
Baby-Friendly USA is the national authority for the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative in the United States. This non-profit organization works to identify hospitals that adhere to 10 steps that have been determined by UNICEF and WHO to be necessary to establish the foundation for successful breastfeeding in new mothers. The following guidelines are followed by all baby-friendly hospitals in the United States and are all necessary for a hospital or birth center to be deemed baby-friendly:
- Maintain a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff.
- Train all health care staff in skills necessary to implement this policy.
- Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding.
- Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within one hour of birth.
- Show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation, even if they are separated from their infants.
- Give infants no food or drink other than breastmilk, unless medically indicated.
- Practice "rooming in" -- allow mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day.
- Encourage unrestricted breastfeeding.
- Give no pacifiers or artificial nipples to breastfeeding infants.
- Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or clinic.
Locations of Baby Friendly Hospitals
There are currently 83 baby-friendly hospitals and birth centers across the United States. The following states currently have one or more baby-friendly birthing facilities:
- Alaska (1)
- California (26)
- Colorado (1)
- Connecticut (2)
- Florida (2)
- Hawaii (1)
- Idaho (1)
- Illinois (2)
- Indiana (3)
- Kentucky (1)
- Maine (4)
- Massachusetts (1)
- Missouri (1)
- Montana (1)
- Nebraska (2)
- New Hampshire (2)
- New York (3)
- Ohio (3)
- Oregon (4)
- Pennsylvania (1)
- Rhode Island (3)
- Tennessee (2)
- Texas (3)
- Utah (1)
- Vermont (1)
- Virginia (1)
- Washington (3)
- Wisconsin (7)
The location of these facilities can be found on the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative's website. Future mothers who wish to receive optimal lactation support after birth should consider selecting one of these centers for their child’s delivery.
Megan Doyle - Megan is very passionate about learning. She enjoys keeping up to date with and writing about breakthroughs in the fields of health and ...
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