Good quality training is crucial to ensure that those involved with caring for mothers and babies have the skills and knowledge to ensure best practice around breastfeeding is implemented.
The Baby Friendly Initiative provides a variety of courses, workshops and teaching packs to support health professionals as they work towards the stages to full accreditation.
All training products have been developed by our team of experienced Baby Friendly Initiative tutors and assessors, and are specifically designed to help participants achieve the high standard of practice required in Baby Friendly health-care facilities. They are evidence-based and accompanied by comprehensive workbooks and other materials.
Dates and booking
You can book a place on an open course through our online booking system or by using our open course booking form.
If you would like us to teach a course to a group of your staff, at a venue provided by you (in-house course), please call 020 7375 6052 or email us.
The following courses are currently available:
Breastfeeding and relationship building: A new approach
The UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative has developed three new courses to support the future implementation of the revised Baby Friendly standards on relationship building and breastfeeding for maternity, health visiting and children’s centre staff.
Each course addresses the specific learning and development needs required by different groups of staff. Available as an in-house or open course.
Click here for the course for maternity staff.
Click here for the course for health visiting/public health nursing staff.
Click here for children's centre staff.
This course is designed to provide neonatal staff with the background knowledge and practical skills they need in order to support mothers to initiate and maintain lactation within the neonatal setting. There will be a strong focus on the importance of family-centred care with reference to the NHS Toolkit for High Quality Neonatal Services and the BLISS Baby Charter Standards. It is available as an open course.
Train the Trainer aims to provide participants with information and ideas on how to deliver effective in-house training to their staff group. Participants will gain an understanding of how people learn and what factors need to be taken into account when implementing a programme of training. They will explore basic teaching strategies and consider how these can be applied to the teaching of key topics relevant to Baby Friendly practice. All participants will be required to deliver a short presentation which will be peer evaluated as part of the course. It is available as an open or in-trust course.
This two-day course aims to provide participants with ideas and tools to help them project manage their way to full Baby Friendly accreditation. The course content includes information on how to get support for your project and manage your time effectively. Developing influencing skills and working with your manager to get the best outcomes will also be covered. Participants will have an opportunity to begin planning one aspect of the project using tried and tested project management tools such as task boarding and Gantt charting. Please note this course is currently unavailable.
This one-day workshop in auditing practices to support breastfeeding is designed to help key members of staff develop the skills they need to carry out meaningful audits within their workplace. It focuses on the type of audit required to assess care against the Baby Friendly Initiative standards, and how this can be carried out and interpreted. Participants will be given lots of opportunities to practice using the Baby Friendly audit tool. Please note this course is currently unavailable.
This new online package is designed to equip GPs with knowledge about the importance of breastfeeding, supporting breastfeeding women, common causes of, and treatment for, breastfeeding problems and information on prescribing, along with appropriate references and resources.
