Successful Breastfeeding

Grove Creek is Proud to be a Baby-Friendly Designated Facility

Grove Creek Medical Center is committed to families. This is why we support the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative and are proud to be a baby-friendly designated facility.

“Achieving the Baby-Friendly designation is not an easy task,” says Trish MacEnroe, executive director of Baby-Friendly USA. “Based on the results of data collected during a rigorous on-site assessment survey, Corrective Action Project, and the final review of the External Review Board, it has been determined that Grove Creek has implemented all of the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and has met the requirement of purchasing breast milk substitutes.”

This designation and training focuses a lot of attention on the importance of mother and baby bonding as soon as possible, especially when a newborn is welcomed into this world and meets their mother for the first time. All of the obstetricians, pediatricians, and nursing staff that are associated with Grove Creek have been educated and trained in the skills needed to support and assist moms and babies with breastfeeding. We also offer in-patient breastfeeding education and lactation consultations.

The Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding form the basis of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, a worldwide breastfeeding quality improvement project created by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding are:

  1. Have a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff.
  2. Train all health care staff in the 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—allow mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day.
  8. Encourage breastfeeding on demand.
  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 birth center.

Baby-Friendly hospitals and birth centers also uphold the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes by offering parents support, education, and educational materials that promote the use of human milk rather than other infant food or drinks, and by refusing to accept or distribute free or subsidized supplies of breastmilk substitutes, nipples, and other feeding devices.