Baby Friendly Initiative: A Family Centered, Quality Improvement Project

The Baby Friendly Initiative is a global, quality improvement project that aims to deliver high quality, family focused care to all birthing people and their families. Through implementation of the BFI, we aim to create an enabling environment that supports all families to meet their infant feeding goals. The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) was launched by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund in 1991 to protect, promote and support breastfeeding as a means of “strengthening the contribution of health services to safe motherhood, child survival and primary health care in general”. A facility achieves Baby Friendly Designation by adhering to Implementation Guidelines WHO/UNICEF have developed (See attached: Implementation Guidance: Protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding in facilities providing maternity and newborn services: the revised Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative) as well as the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes. Both are guidelines developed to ensure high quality, evidence based and best practice care that is free of bias. The Cape Breton Regional Hospital has been pursuing Baby Friendly Designation for the past 15+ years and has recently participated in the Breastfeeding Committee for Canada’s National Baby-Friendly Initiative Quality Improvement Collaborative Project where we have made significant strides towards our BFI designation.