Is your hospital "Baby Friendly?"

It seems like a silly question to ask when you are trying to decide where to deliver your baby. Isn't any hospital that delivers babies "Baby Friendly" by definition? Surprisingly, the answer is no.

The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative is a worldwide effort by the World Health Organization and Unicef to support and promote breastfeeding. Hospitals must apply for accreditation as Baby Friendly, a lengthy and involved process.

In order to be considered for Baby Friendly Accreditation, hospitals must:

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 30min of birth

5. Show mothers how to breastfeed and maintain lactation even if they are separated from their infants

6. Give the newborn no food or drink other than breast milk (no sugar water, no formula) unless medically indicated

7.Allow mothers and infants to "room-in" together 24 hours per day

8. Encourage breastfeeding on demand (whenever the baby shows signs of hunger like rooting, sucking on hands)

9. Give no pacifiers to breastfeeding infants

10. Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer moms to them upon discharge from the hospital.

Many of these requirements sound like common sense, but most maternity hospitals in the United States were not designed with breastfeeding as a primary focus. Historically, in many hospitals, infants were separated from their moms for the first 4-6 hours of life to be observed in the nursery for problems with breathing or staying warm. In addition, sugar water was often given as the first feed to "make sure it was tolerated" before infants were given breast milk or formula. An unintended consequence of these practices was that moms were not able to breastfeed in the first hour---often the most alert time for a newborn in the first 24 hours. In addition, these practices sent mom the message that supplements were an acceptable alternative and possibly even better than breast milk for their infants.

Texas Health Harris Methodist Fort Worth is currently working toward accreditation as a Baby Friendly Hospital. As of September 2009, their were only 89 Hospitals and Birthing Centers with the Baby Friendly designation in the United States, and only THREE in the entire state of Texas.

I am proud to be a part of a facility that has put so much time and effort into such a worthy endeavor that will ensure a better tomorrow for our most precious gifts---our babies.

- Fran Lynch MD, Neonatologist
Associate Medical Director of NICU
Texas Health Harris Methodist Fort Worth