Good News for The James Cook University Hospital

HOSPITAL ACHIEVES RECOGNITION FOR BABY FRIENDLY SERVICES

THE MATERNITY service at The James Cook University Hospital has been commended for the high standard of care it offers to breastfeeding mothers and new born babies.

The Middlesbrough hospital has been awarded the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Hospital award for the third time, joining the 53

United Kingdom maternity units with full accreditation of the award.

The Baby Friendly Initiative works with the health-care system to ensure a high standard of care for pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers and babies and recognises those that achieve the required standard.

To meet its high standards hospitals must demonstrate they have implemented all Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and practise in line with the international code of marketing of breast milk substitutes.

A team of three assessors from UNICEF interviewed pregnant women and new mothers as well as hospital staff during the re-accreditation visit and were impressed by the knowledge of staff as well as the comments and feedback from the women they interviewed about the care they received.

Midwife consultant

Anne Holt said: “We are delighted that the maternity service at

James Cook has been recognised by UNICEF by being reaccredited with the full award again. It’s a fantastic achievement and one everyone involved should take credit for. We are committed to providing the highest standard of care and support for mothers and their babies and the award demonstrates this.

“We know most mothers want to breastfeed but they don’t always receive the support and encouragement they need to do so successfully. At

James Cook we are working hard to make sure that women get all of the information and support they need during pregnancy and following birth to help them to get breastfeeding off to a good start.

“We are also working closely with health visiting colleagues and the local community to support breastfeeding and to enable mothers to continue to breastfeed their babies for as long as they wish”.