Aren't all maternity hospitals "Baby Friendly?"

 You may have heard that Health Alliance (Kingston) Hospital is a Baby Friendly Hospital.

You may have questions about what that means. Aren't all maternity hospitals "baby friendly?" While the health care workers, staff and executives at your nearby hospital may love babies and be friendly, "Baby Friendly" means something deeper and different.

The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) was formed to increase awareness and educate parents about the importance of breastfeeding, especially in the first hour after birth; to protect parents from predatory marketing and mis-education from hospital staff; to give parents all the professional support they might need as they begin their breastfeeding relationship; and to link families to breastfeeding support systems when they return home.

 

BFHI is founded on the ideal that all babies have the right to begin their life by breastfeeding.

If after educating parents, allowing babies to initiate breastfeeding, and helping families breastfeed through their early days, the family decides to wean, then that is absolutely acceptable.

The Initiative decided on 10 principles which became "The Ten Steps To Successful Breastfeeding." and is adapted into "The Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding for Hospitals," as outlined by UNICEF/WHO.

 

The ten steps for the United States are:

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 one hour of birth.

5 - Show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation, even if they are 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 pacifiers or artificial nipples to breastfeeding infants.

10 - Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or clinic

 

A hospital goes through a several year process of adopting the "Ten Steps" in coordination with BFHI.

When they have made all the organizational and structural changes needed to adopt these principles, they become a "Baby Friendly Hospital."

 

In New York State, these hospitals have earned the Baby Friendly designation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.babyfriendlyusa.org

What to Expect at a Baby Friendly Hospital

HealthAlliance Hospital’s Family Birth Place