Baby Friendly Accreditation for Maternity Services
Maternity Services at Prince Charles and Princess of Wales Hospitals are now recognised by UNICEF’s Baby Friendly Accreditation.
The initiative recognises the efforts of maternity staff in supporting mothers with feeding their new baby.
The UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative provides a framework for the implementation of best practice by NHS health boards and trusts, other health care facilities and higher education institutions, with the aim of ensuring that all parents make informed decisions about feeding their babies and are supported in their chosen feeding method. Facilities and institutions that meet the required standards can be assessed and accredited as Baby Friendly.
Maternity staff at CTM are trained in the Baby Friendly standards and receive ongoing training to help them support mothers. The team is particularly good at promoting skin to skin contact between mums and babies after births, with this happening 90.8% of the time, including after Caesarean sections.
This comes following the news of the launch of the new CTM Infant Feeding Strategy that can be found here, this is our vision, demonstrating our commitment to proving all new families with personalised care and support to make informed choices about feeding their baby.
Infant Feeding Specialist Midwife Rosy Phillips said: “Maintaining our baby friendly standards is definitely a team effort. It is an excellent achievement and something to be very proud of. We will now be working towards the UNICEF BFI Gold award.”
“We want to ensure mothers have all the support they need as they nurture and feed their new babies.”
The UK Baby Friendly Initiative is based on a global accreditation programme of UNICEF and the World Health Organization. It is designed to support breastfeeding, safe formula feeding and parent infant relationships by working with public services to improve standards of care.
Breastfeeding reduces the risk of babies becoming ill. It is also associated with a reduced risk of later childhood disease and protects the mother’s health.
Implementing Baby Friendly standards is a proven way of increasing breastfeeding rates. It also means health professionals can give mothers the support, information and encouragement they need.
13/03/2025