A while back some members of the group Moms Rising of the Pioneer Valley (a local group affiliated with the national Moms Rising organization) asked me what they could do to try to improve support for breastfeeding moms in our area. I told them about the UNICEF/WHO Baby Friendly initiative. They were immediately interested.
Some background: Baby Friendly is an award, established in 1990 by UNICEF and the WHO, which earned is earned by hospitals which meet an evidence-based standards of good breastfeeding care. They follow the 10 Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, which means that they do thinks like not routinely supplement or give pacifiers to breastfeeding babies, training nurses and doctors on how to help mothers breastfeed, and have babies 'room-in' with mothers. What happens when you do these things? More mothers breastfeed exclusively.
There are around 16,000 Baby Friendly hospitals in the world. There are about 75 in the U.S. There is one in Massachusetts.
So today, the Moms Rising group, along with my breastfeeding coalition, held an event for all of the hospitals in Western Massachusetts. We had representatives of 8 hospitals there, along with a lot of moms, doulas, and WIC staff. We had presentations by Baby Friendly USA, Boston Medical Center (the one Baby Friendly Hospital in Massachusetts), and stories written by moms. Each participant got a 20 page packet of stories written by local moms about their breastfeeding experiences, and each table had table tents with quotes from those stories.
Why am I feeling proud of this? Usually the initiative to go Baby Friendly comes from within a hospital. But this effort is led by moms who want better breastfeeding care. I asked the representative of Baby Friendly USA if mothers in a community have ever organized to push hospitals to become Baby Friendly and she said she thinks that this is a first.
I think that's something to be proud of.
Here's an article on the event from our local independent newspaper.
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