UNICEF Baby Friendly Accreditation

NHS Walsall Community Health, NHS Walsall and Walsall’s Children’s Centres have been highly commended on the quality of documentation submitted to pass stage 1 of the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative. This prestigious accreditation is awarded to those who have demonstrated their commitment to meeting UNICEF’s ‘Baby Friendly Best Practise’ standards.

Caroline Mansell, Breastfeeding Strategy and Development Officer at NHS Walsall Community Health, said,

“We have been working on behalf of NHS Walsall, Walsall GP’s and Children’s Centres to implement the Baby Friendly Initiative standard mechanisms, and deliver up to date services to families in Walsall which give consistent messages about infant feeding.

“We know that most mothers want to breastfeed but don’t always get the effective support they need to do so successfully. Mothers in Walsall will have the knowledge they need as staff will provide them with best practise standards of care and information during their pregnancy and beyond.”

Work on the programme, led by NHS Walsall Community Health’s Lifestyle Services, began in 2007 and documentation was sent for assessment on 8 May 2009.

The Baby Friendly Initiative is designed to work through health professionals to ensure parents are supported to make fully informed choices about how they feed their babies.

To pass the assessment the team had to adhere to a written breastfeeding policy and communicate to all staff, train staff to implement the initiative, inform pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding, support mothers to initiate and maintain breastfeeding, encourage exclusive breastfeeding for around 6 months, provide environments that are welcoming to breastfeeding families and encourage community and peer support for breastfeeding.

NHS Community Health is now planning work on stage two of the initiative. This will involve building on the knowledge and skills acquired from stage one.