What does it mean to be a "Baby-Friendly" Hospital??

[Naomi'sMommy]

I know that it means pro-breastfeeding and that there are 61 in the US...but what EXACTLY does that mean?

I am excited that the hospital I'll be giving birth in (in August 2008) happens to be one of these....we recently moved to CA and will be at Robert E. Bush Naval Hospital.

The NC hospital where I gave birth Jan. 2007 pushed formula on me and had no LCs available (thank goodness I was prepared and educated through books and an older sister who has BFed all 3 of her children, tandem nursed, child led weaning, etc...) and it made the first weeks VERY difficult as I had no support in my area.

ANYWAY....I'm really excited about this upcoming birth experience now, even though I don't know EXACTLY what "Baby-friendly" entails but it must be GOOD.

Thanks in advance.

[Brilliantmama]

My hospital wasn't on the list, but they did really well.

They asked as I got there what I planned on doing, breast, bottle or both.

When I put her up to my nipple less than 5 minutes after delivery, the nurses (there were 2) and my midwife cheered us on. Of the 2 nurses who took care of us that day, one was a certified LC and the other was finishing her hours to be an official LC. They checked on our nursing every 15 minutes or so, offering help with latching, watching her, giving tips on positioning, etc. It was really nice. They told me not to worry about crystals in her urine, as she would get enough colostrum until the milk came in. They also weighed her out of my sight, so I wasn't overtly aware of her weight loss.

They mentioned that they could keep Georgie in the "nursery" but that they really prefer babies to stay with mamas.

I never saw a bottle during our stay. We had to ask for a pacifier.

Georgie never left my/hubby's sight.

ETA: They also gave me a medela single deluxe electric pump.

[BiscuitBaby]

Baby Friendly Hospitals are to follow the following standards:

The BFHI promotes, protects, and supports breastfeeding through The Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding for Hospitals, as outlined by UNICEF/WHO. The steps for the United States are:

1 - Maintain 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 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 unrestricted breastfeeding.
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

I am actually VERY surprised to see a Naval Hospital on the list, but that is great for you! My DH was in the Marine Corps for 12 years and we were never satisfied with the care we got at the Naval Hospital. Seems like this one may be the exeption to the rule!

[Breastfeeding Insomniac]

The hospital I work in is in the process, we have a certificate of intent on file, and hope that by next year we will receive our designation. Just to let you guys know, from behind the scenes, there is a LOT of work involved, and this is not at all an easy thing to do. Its good there is so much involved though, bc it makes a baby-friendly hospital designation really mean something. So if your hospital is baby-friendly, that is a huge achievement on their part, and a great thing for you as a breast-feeding mama!

[BiscuitBaby]

I think it is awesome that there are 15 hospitals from CA on the list!

None from TX, go figure. :

(Former CA resident for 28 years )

[nyxx]

Originally Posted by BiscuitBaby

The BFHI promotes, protects, and supports breastfeeding through The Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding for Hospitals, as outlined by UNICEF/WHO.

3 - Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding.

i want to tell you about a lactivism sucess story from germany.
some years ago the wording of the german translation of the "ten steps" was similar. they wrote "benefits of breastfeeding" ("vorteile des stillens").
according to the "watch your language"-article by diane wiessinger i complaint about that phrase. i wrote a critical editorial note in our breastfeeding magazine and talked to some of the responsible persons of the german BFHI. i explained them why there are no breastfeeding benefits.
and now they changed it into "importance of breastfeeding" ("bedeutung des stillens"), because this is more neutral.
http://www.babyfreundlich.org/filead...2007-08-21.pdf
i was very happy when i saw that they changed it.

maybe one of you could try something similar with the english version?

[phreedom]

We strive to do most of the things on the list despite VERY medicalized births and an overwhelming C-section rate.

We are also still hindered by goofy routines that are done just for the sake of doing them (transitioning section babies in the NBN for 4 hours regardless of their status...). But now that the nurses have formed different councils, we have worked with doctors to get things changed. There are a few "routine" blood tests that were being ordered on every healthy infant that we have gotten eliminated. We have stricter BFing policies in place, regarding orders and supplementation. And so on.

I'm happy that we are really making an effort. And really for the most part the doctors have been pretty co-operative (well the pedis have...the OB's are another thing). They just need a little prodding.

But I don't think we are quite baby friendly in practice just yet.