As we have rpreviously reported on this blog, guidance was issued by the National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in 2006 that all maternity units and community settings within the NHS should work towards achieving the award, but England still lags behind other UK countries and much of Europe.
Of course in Blackpool and North Lancashire we are on the case and progess is being made in the move towards Baby Friendly Accreditation for both Primary Care Trusts, (community) and also in Children's Centres throughout the patch. The hospitals serving the area (Blackpool Victoria, Royal Lancaster and Royal Preston) have yet to announce their commitment to becime Baby Friendly, but that is the long term intention.
In fact they are not alone: only 26 maternity units out of 238 have the full Baby Friendly Award, which is around 11 per cent of the hopsitals with maternity units in England.
Nationally, around three quarters of mothers start breastfeeding but a third have stopped by the time the baby reaches six weeks of age, despite guidelines saying babies should be fed naturally for the first six months exclusively if possible.
In our locality, the current figures are just over 60% initiating breastfeeding in North Lancashire, and just over 50% in Blackpool. Sadly, the figures for Blackpool have dropped to somewhere between 15 and 20% of babies receiving any breastmilk at just 6-8 weeks of age - so two thirds of those who started breastfeeding will have stopped, compared with the national average of one third), so obviously there will be only a small group of babies still exclusovely breastfed at 6 months of age.
The Baby Friendly Initiative takes a 'no blame' approach with mother's giving information to make their own choice without pressure to breastfeed; as we have staed previously, any locality going for the Baby Friendy award must also comply with international guidance that bans the promotion of bottle feed formula and ensure that they do not sell formula on site. There are also standards to support women to continue breastfeeding once they are discharged from hospital.
Anne Woods, Deputy Director of the Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative, speaking from the annual conference in Glasgow this week, said: "There is evidence that being Baby Friendly makes the big difference: we see that those who are working towards accreditation don't get the increase in breastfeeding statistics - because it is the impact of the external evaluation that makes the difference. Of course if the ten steps are in place this will make some difference – it is like a jigsaw and these are the pieces you need to put in place. The reason that many units have not got the award is because it is hard work. But it is a globally recognised, prestigious award, and it is demonstrating an excellent standard of care."
In hospitals that have the Baby Friendly accreditation, 28% more babies are breastfed, she said.
The NICE guidance points out that increasing breastfeeding rates benefits hospitals and communities financially because after three to four years there is a corresponding drop in childhood illness.
Two weeks ago the Dept of Health invited 50 primary care trusts at the bottom of the league for breastfeeding initiation to apply for a share of £4m to implement Baby Friendly standards.