Thursday 28th April 2011

The Chesterfield Royal Hospital has announced that once again it has been awarded Baby Friendly status.

The Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) is a combined World Health Organisation and UNICEF project designed to assess the willingness of maternity services to support breastfeeding. The Trust was assessed against 36 standards and achieved 34 of these resulting in passing all ten standards.

Mandy Abbett is the Trust's Infant Feeding Specialist. She led the team to the re-accreditation, and said: "It's a fantastic achievement and we can now say we've been baby friendly at this Trust since the accreditation was set up in 2001.

"The assessment team were very encouraged by our results and suggested that the Trust may wish to work towards becoming a 'beacon unit' for this area. UNICEF also talked about developing a Baby Friendly Initiative gold award that we would be interested in achieving in the future."

The Baby Friendly Initiative standards ensure that all parents have information ante-natally so that they can make an informed choice about feeding their new babies. Support is offered to all new mothers to help them successfully breastfeed or, if they have chosen to formula feed, that they have all the information about how to do this correctly and safely.

The benefits of breastfeeding for babies are well documented and include an improved immune system and less chance of developing infections, allergies, diabetes and obesity. There are also health benefits for the mother that includes a lower risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer as well as improving bone density.

"Over the years, we've changed our overall approach to the crucial time following birth," explains Mandy. "We encourage all babies to have skin-to-skin contact straight after birth and to maintain this for as long as possible. All babies are given the opportunity to have a first breastfeed, this is like giving the baby its ‘first immunisation.

"Fathers are also encouraged to have skin-to-skin contact to help them bond with their babies too and help to keep the baby calm. This is what new research tells us about the best post-birth environment for the continuing development of babies' brains. Continuous uninterrupted presence of the mother provides all the right stimulations for the baby's brain at the right time and is important for future physical and mental health.

"The accreditation is also an indication to visitors that they are welcome to breastfeed their babies on site. There are a number of posters across the hospital and if any objections are raised then the person raising that objection will be asked to move rather than the mother and child. It's all about making breastfeeding the norm and removing all barriers to enable mothers to breastfeed wherever they feel comfortable."

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