Lakes District Hospital Achieves 'Baby Friendly' Status

It’s official - Lakes District Hospital is ‘baby friendly’ having recently received approval from the New Zealand Breastfeeding Authority to be awarded accreditation under the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative.

The hospital will officially celebrate its success at a ceremony to be held at Lakes District Hospital today at 1.30pm.

Southland District Health Board Director of Nursing and Midwifery (Women and Children), Jenny Humphries, said a Baby Friendly Hospital is defined as a health care facility where the practitioners who provide care for women and babies adopt practices that aim to protect, promote and support exclusive breastfeeding from birth .

At the same time, Baby Friendly facilities ensure that women who choose not to breastfeed are supported in their decision and provided with unbiased information and advice. However it is necessary to inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding.

Ms Humphries said achieving baby friendly accreditation was a great reflection of the maternity care provided at Lakes District Hospital (LDH), with the maternity unit even exceeding some of the benchmark criteria set out in the accreditation process.

“One of the standards of achievement is for 75% of women to be exclusively breast feeding at discharge from their care facility,” said Ms Humphries.

“Last year we had 94% of women exclusively breast feeding at discharge, which is a real credit to the support the team provides.”

The baby friendly accreditation standard requires the maternity unit to have a breastfeeding policy, train all health care staff with the skills to implement the policy document, give newborn infants no food or drink other than breastmilk, unless there was a medical reason for a baby to receive other forms of nutrition

Other standards of achievement also include the following benchmarks:

• 80% of facility staff to have achieved a required number of education hours on breast feeding and supporting mothers to breast feed. This includes nursing, midwifery staff, medical and ancillary staff.
• Staff are assessed on their knowledge of breastfeeding and their ability to assist women to breast feed.
• Antenatal women are interviewed on their knowledge regarding breast feeding as provided to them by the staff.
• Postnatal women are interviewed on their knowledge and also on the support that they received from staff to help them breastfeed their babies.
• The physical environment of the facility is examined for such things as posters that depict breastfeeding positively.

Ms Humphries said Lakes District Hospital’s accreditation follows on from the success of Southland Hospital, which achieved baby friendly status in 2006.

The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative is an initiative of the World Health Organisation and UNICEF and aims to strengthen the capacity of national health systems to protect and support breastfeeding.

Photo Opportunity: Media are invited to attend a ceremony at Lakes District Hospital today, from 1.30-2pm, celebrating the hospital achieving accreditation under the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative.

ENDS

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