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"Baby Friendly" Hospitals

Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare hospitals are dedicated to providing baby friendly environments and do so in many ways.

As it relates to breastfeeding, The Baby Friendly Hospital initiative is a global program sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to encourage and recognize hospitals and birthing centers that offer an optimal level of care for breastfeeding mothers and families.

Hospitals may apply for this designation and two of Wheaton Franciscan hospitals have done so.

Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare-Elmbrook Memorial and Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare-St. Francis have specific "Baby Friendly Hospital" designations, awarded after undergoing an extensive accreditation process. They are two of only five hospitals in Wisconsin and fewer than 75 in the United States with this distinction.

Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI)
The BFHI promotes, protects and supports breastfeeding through the ten steps to Successful Breastfeeding for Hospitals, as outlined by United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)/World Health Organization (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 breast milk, unless medically indicated.
7. Practice “rooming in” – allows 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.

To learn more about the BFHI initiative, visit www.babyfriendlyusa.org.