What Happens When You Give Birth at a Baby-Friendly Designated Hospital?

The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) is a global program devised to educate about the benefits of human milk and support breastfeeding as the norm. The goal of the program is to create a healthcare environment that fully protects, promotes, and supports breastfeeding. A major emphasis of the program is on hand expression.

All hospital staff that interact with new mothers are educated about the benefits of human milk and what they can do to support new mothers. If you give birth at a Baby-Friendly hospital, you will be in the care of healthcare workers who are trained to help with breastfeeding and protecting your milk production. You will be educated about the benefits of breastfeeding and the negative consequences of giving your baby formula. BFHI requires that mothers are taught about the importance of breastmilk and are given all the necessary help and opportunities to make lactation successful. BFHI also acknowledges there may be a medical need for supplementation, but they encourage the supplemental feedings to be either the mother’s own milk or pasteurized donor human milk, and supplementation, beyond colostrum, is only to be used when medically necessary. They are opposed to using formula supplementation and supplementation methods that undermine breastfeeding if you have stated that your intent is to breastfeed. However, giving birth at a facility that has adopted this program does not mean you have to breastfeed. If a mother does not want to breastfeed or doesn't want to follow the suggestions provided by the staff, the hospital or birth facility does not get penalized for that if it is charted what education was done and that it was the mother’s choice not to follow that advice. As the mother, you ultimately have the right to decide what to feed your baby and the method of feeding.