Global
Strategy for Infant and Young Child
Feeing :World
Health Assembly (WHA) and UNICEF adopted
the Global Strategy,which
sets five additional targets: national
policy on infant and young child feeding,
community outreach, information support,
infant feeding in difficult circumstances
and monitoring and evaluation.
Hospitals and maternity units set a powerful example for new mothers. The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative ( BFHI ), launched in 1991, is an effort by UNICEF and the World Health Organization to ensure that all maternities,whether free standing or in a hospital, become centers of breastfeeding support. for more information visit http://www.unicef.org/programme/breastfeeding/baby.htm
Activity and Result
Supporting Documents
The Ten Steps To Successful Breastfeeding
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:
Maintain a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff.
Train all health care staff in skills necessary to implement this policy.
Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding.
Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within one hour of birth.
Show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation, even if they are separated from their infants.
Give infants no food or drink other than breastmilk, unless medically indicated.
Practice “rooming in”-- allow mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day.
Encourage unrestricted breastfeeding.
Give no pacifiers or artificial nipples to breastfeeding infants.
Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or clinic