Blog to Baby-Friendly—Memorial Childbirth Center’s Journey
This is the day! The official day that Memorial Hospital of South Bend begins the journey to Baby-Friendly! “What!” you exclaim, “Isn’t a hospital that has been delivering babies for over 100 years already baby friendly?” I’d like to think we are! We do love babies and their families. We help deliver nearly 3000 each year. However, the more we learn, the more we know WE CAN DO BETTER! It is our commitment to our community to provide the best evidence based care. So here we go. Follow us on the journey to becoming Baby-Friendly.
What is Baby-Friendly?
The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative is a global effort sponsored by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. You can check it out at www.babyfriendlyusa.org. With 20 years of research to support it, this initiative has become the gold standard in how to care for babies in the hospital. It’s as easy as 10 Steps:
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Have a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff. |
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Train all health care staff in skills necessary to implement this policy. |
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Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding. |
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Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within one hour of birth. |
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Show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation, even if they are separated from their infants. |
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Give newborn infants no food or drink other than breastmilk, unless medically indicated. |
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Practice “rooming in”– allow mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day. |
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Encourage breastfeeding on demand. |
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Give no pacifiers or artificial nipples to breastfeeding infants. |
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Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or clinic |
Follow the blog. Follow the journey. We can’t wait to share with you and hear from you!
I am soooo excited to be a part of this journey to provide the optimal environment for our community to delivery babies!!!
This is very exciting. I wish more hospitals would take the time to implement this. It is amazing how many women I talk to that started breast feeding and stopped or didn’t even attempt due to lack of knowledge.
It’s nice to see such dedication to promoting healthy babies. Keep up the good work!
Memorial Hospital has always been a leader in supporting breastfeeding moms. Now that they are pursueing Baby Friendly status, they are taking it to the next level! Way to go!
I am pleased to be able to support this effort by Amy and all the staff at Memorial. They did not have to work to hard to convince me of all the benefits to ‘Mom and Baby’. I have three kids, all three my wife breastfed. We were fortunate for child #2 and #3 to have the support of a lactation consultant. Our kids are happy, healthy and really smart. No thanks to me. It was the breastmilk! If we can educate, influence and impact others for the improvement of health through this effort, then we will have succeeded! The blog is off to a great start. Congratulations! I am glad we can be a resource for others.
Kreg Gruber
President,Memorial Hospital
Kreg,
We are fortunate to have your support in this group effort! I am looking forward to the positive changes we will bring to the community!
Emmy Ettl RN, IBCLC
Thanks for your support Kreg! It makes all the difference!