Stakeholder Spotlight: UNC Hospitals Continuing Baby-Friendly Designation with a “First in the Nation!”

UNC Hospitals successfully re-designated as a Baby-Friendly facility, this time with a “First in the Nation” twist! Moving towards re-designation during COVID was a challenge. The new Manager of Lactation Services, Debbie Gordon, and the UNC Hospitals team, with the support of the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute (CGBI), not only met the challenge but excelled. UNC Hospitals became the first hospital to achieve the re-designation using the recently-updated Baby-Friendly USA (BFUSA; 6th edition) Guidelines and Evaluation Criteria (GEC) Step 2 criteria.

Because UNC Hospitals had progressed so far on the new Step 2 criteria well before the date BFUSA planned to implement them, BFUSA decided to take a special hybrid approach when assessing the facility based on the new criteria for Step 2 and the old criteria for the other nine steps.

Baby-Friendly USA “UNC Hospitals – Chapel Hill First to Be Successfully Assessed on New Step 2 Competencies”

Read more about the UNC Hospital journey to re-accreditation and how they became “the first ‘pilot site’ for the new Step 2 platform” and the first facility in the nation to be successfully assessed on the new Step 2 competencies. Also, learn more about the important role of another stakeholder, the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute, in providing technical assistance to support the re-designation.

Why is this Designation Important?

There is a rich storehouse of evidence from decades of research that breastfeeding supports the optimal growth and development of children. Babies are meant to chest/breastfeed right from the start, and when that is not possible, to receive human milk…again right from birth. Human milk is easier to digest than alternatives and does not harm the newborn’s new gastro-intestinal tract. Human milk not only provides the nutrients needed for growth, it contains vital immunological properties to help the infant fight off infections. In the early days, colostrum is the first milk that the infant receives. It’s often called “liquid gold”, because is contains a concentrated dose of nutrients and antibodies to protect the infant from infections and to help the infant thrive and grow…right from the start.

Those first hours and days after birth are a precious and profoundly-important time for the infant and parent to connect and to get chest/breastfeeding off to a good start. Baby Friendly Hospitals provide care that supports parents to be able to initiate chest/breastfeeding soon after birth and understand the essential role of human milk for optimal early growth. Through the designation process, hospitals review and create infant feeding policies and practices that promote this critical, gentle, early learning time for the infant and parent. Baby-Friendly Hospitals give parents the confidence to continue to breastfeed and to know where to find support.

The BFHI [Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative] assists hospitals in giving mothers the information, confidence, and skills necessary to successfully initiate and continue breastfeeding their babies and gives special recognition to hospitals that have done so. 

Baby-Friendly USA “The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative”

We’re proud of the commitment if UNC hospitals to welcoming and helping families to meet their chestfeeding , breastfeeding and human milk feeding goals.