Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative: Implementation Guidance (Revised 2018)
Protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding in facilities providing maternity and newborn services
This updated implementation guidance is intended for all those who set policy for, or offer care to, pregnant women, families and infants: governments; national managers of maternal and child health programmes in general, and of breastfeeding- and BFHI-related programmes in particular; and health-facility managers at different levels (facility directors, medical directors, chiefs of maternity and neonatal wards). The document presents the first revision of the Ten Steps since 1989.
The topic of each step is unchanged, but the wording of each one has been updated in line with the evidence-based guidelines and global public health policy. The steps are subdivided into (i) the institutional procedures necessary to ensure that care is delivered consistently and ethically (critical management procedures); and (ii) standards for individual care of mothers and infants (key clinical practices). Full application of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and relevant World Health Assembly Resolutions (the Code), as well as ongoing internal monitoring of adherence to the clinical practices, have been incorporated into step 1 on infant feeding policies.
Organizations
UNICEF, WHO
Publication date
2018
Languages
English
