The Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) was among five local institutions conferred with Baby-Friendly Hospital status yesterday.
The GPH, Suddie and Oscar Joseph hospitals in Region Two and the New Amsterdam and Skeldon hospitals in Region Six, now join the West Demerara Regional Hospital, Davis Memorial Hospital, Mahaicony Cottage Hospital, Mahdia District Hospital, Lethem Regional Hospital and the Upper Demerara Hospital as internationally accredited centres for breastfeeding support.
The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI), launched in 1991, is an effort by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to ensure that all maternities, whether free standing or in a hospital, become centres of breastfeeding support.
According to UNICEF, a maternity facility can be designated ‘baby-friendly’ when it has passed external assessment according to the Global Criteria for the BFHI. This criteria is that it does not accept free or low-cost breast milk substitutes, feeding bottles or teats, and has implemented 10 steps to support successful breastfeeding.
These steps include having a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff, informing all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breast feeding, giving newborn infants no food or drink other than breast milk unless medically indicated and helping mothers to initiate breastfeeding within the first hour of birth. This initiation is now interpreted as placing babies in skin-to-skin contact with their mothers immediately following birth for at least an hour and encouraging mothers to recognize when their babies are ready to breastfeed, offering help if needed.
The five hospitals assessed over the last month met requirements in all areas of review.
Speaking at Cara Lodge, yesterday where the Final Report of the Assessment of Hospitals working towards Baby Friendly Hospital Status was disseminated, representative of PAHO/WHO William Adu Krow congratulated the hospitals on their achievement and reminded that that his organization stands ready to support them in maintaining the standards they have achieved.
Noting that Guyana currently only has 23% compliance with exclusive breastfeeding, UNICEF Child Survival Officer Cornelly McAlmont, speaking on behalf of her organization, urged the hospitals not only to maintain the standards set but to work towards including a wider community of stakeholders in the quest to initiate and maintain better breastfeeding practices.
“Breast is best and all of us need to be convinced of that and remember this message when we talk to our clients. We must give people the confidence they need to support breastfeeding… so we must consider our untapped support groups such as mother, mothers-in-laws and grandmothers who have information on breastfeeding so we need to target our message to these individuals,” she said.
Meanwhile Minister of Public Health George Norton noted that he is pleased and confident that the assessments were accurately done and urged all maternities to continue to work to either earn or maintain baby friendly status. He said the aim is to ensure that there are baby-friendly hospitals in all of the regions of Guyana.
