Upholding the Highest Standards of Infant Feeding Care
As the accrediting body and national authority for the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) in the United States, Baby-Friendly USA (BFUSA) is responsible for coordinating and conducting all activities necessary to confer the prestigious Baby-Friendly® designation and ensure the widespread adoption of the BFHI in the US. We do this by:
- Refining and upholding the standards/criteria for successfully implementing the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding in the US;
- Assessing and accrediting birthing facilities that meet those standards and follow the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes; and
- Generating widespread understanding of and enthusiasm for best practice infant feeding care.
Upholding the Highest Standards of Infant Feeding Care.
As the accrediting body and national authority for the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) in the United States, Baby-Friendly USA (BFUSA) is responsible for coordinating and conducting all activities necessary to confer the prestigious Baby-Friendly® designation and ensure the widespread adoption of the BFHI in the US. We do this by:
- Refining and upholding the standards/criteria for successfully implementing the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding in the US
- Assessing and accrediting birthing facilities that meet those standards and follow the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes
- Generating widespread understanding of and enthusiasm for best practice infant feeding care
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What’s New
New Study Finds Breastfeeding Linked to Reduced Odds of Infant Deaths in the US
BFUSA would like to bring to your attention a study recently published in Lancet by Li et al., which adds to the substantial and ever-growing evidence of the benefits of breastfeeding. While there is substantial Read more
BFUSA Awards First Designations Via Virtual Assessment Process
“It was challenging, in a good way,” says Vanessa Dacey, BFUSA’s Accreditation Director. She’s speaking about the need to revamp many of BFUSA’s policies and systems when it became clear that assessors would not be Read more
BFUSA Releases Toolkit to Bring Baby-Friendly Principles to the NICU
BFUSA is pleased to announce that we have released an important set of resources to help providers apply Baby-Friendly principles in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The BFUSA NICU Toolkit is designed to help Read more
BFUSA Releases Updated BFHI Guidelines and Evaluation Criteria
Baby-Friendly USA is excited to announce the release of the updated Guidelines and Evaluation Criteria (GEC) 6th edition, for the United States, which will apply to all Baby-Friendly designation assessment letters received on or after Read more
Comments from the Front Line
“Here in West Virginia, we only have three Baby-Friendly certified hospitals. I’ll be going to one of them.”
“The Baby-Friendly experience has really helped us drive our evidence-based practice and assure our patients that we are practicing to the highest standards. We’re affecting not only the health of this generation, but generations to come. It’s very exciting and empowering.”
“We have some serious healthcare issues in our state and we knew increased breastfeeding could have a positive impact in these areas. So, our management made the bold and important decision that we were going to encourage a commitment to the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative.”
“The moment I tried it, she latched on, no problem. It’s like she knew what she wanted. So that’s how I ended up breastfeeding. Everything I needed to know about breastfeeding, they helped me 100 percent. I’m glad I did it because there’s a lot of benefits from it.”
“The delivery setting is vital to a good start in breastfeeding. Since breastfeeding improves health in so many ways, the impact of this effort on our population’s health is yet to be fully appreciated.”
“Baby-Friendly practices are now mainstream and have achieved wide enough coverage to have a significant impact on breastfeeding rates across the US.”
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