IT'S OFFICIAL We are Baby FriendlyKingston Hospital awarded prestigious UNICEF ‘Baby Friendly’ Accreditation
Kingston Hospital has been officially confirmed as ‘baby friendly’ by a prominent International organisation.
Our Baby Friendly Journey
UNICEF – United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund recently awarded Kingston Hospital with the UNICEF Baby Friendly Stage 1 Accreditation. This accreditation means the Hospital’s maternity department has met strict international standards that have involved almost three years’ of operational and procedural changes.
The Stage 1 Accreditation Award reflects that Kingston Hospital ensures mechanisms have been implemented and are being maintained to enable best practice standards in infant feeding.
Kingston Hospital Infant Feeding Coordinator, Celia Dunsire said that adhering to the criteria and encouraging breastfeeding is of great importance in the early stages of a child’s life.
“Having skin-to-skin contact and firstly trying to breast feed your newborn baby have been shown to help with parental bonding and continued success of breastfeeding.”
Celia Dunsire,
Infant Feeding Coordinator
The award is part of a journey Kingston Hospital began in 2008 when it first registered its intention to become a ‘Baby Friendly Hospital’ with UNICEF UK. This led to being awarded a UNICEF Baby Friendly Certificate of Commitment in May 2010, which is an award given to hospitals that have a breastfeeding policy, action plan and a signed commitment to achieve Baby Friendliness by the Hospital CEO.
Accreditation for this award is assessed on stringent World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF criteria, based on successful breastfeeding techniques.
The Next Steps
Kingston Hospital’s Maternity Unit will now be working towards achieving Stage 2 Accreditation in 2012 and Stage 3 by 2012. These accreditations are attainable once the Maternity Unit successfully passes an external assessment showing that staff meet set criteria regarding knowledge and skills in breastfeeding management, and the care and information provided to pregnant women and new mothers. Upon attainment of these awards Kingston Hospital will become one of the first full accredited ‘Baby Friendly’ Hospitals in the London area.
Anna Dellaway, Head of Midwifery here at Kingston said “We are extremely proud of the many staff, in particular Christina Taylor and Celia Dunsire who have led on this project and are a major part of the achievement of this accolade – all our maternity staff have worked hard and shown great commitment over a sustained period to reach this standard and I am personally very proud of our maternity team.”