The Baby Friendly Initiative Annual Conference took place in Liverpool last week (24/25 November), with over 830 health professionals, supporters and others in attendance.
Delegates were celebrating both the increase in breastfeeding initiation rates, shown in the latest UK Infant Feeding Survey, and a record year for Baby Friendly awards, with 230 this year, including 31 new fully accredited units.
UNICEF UK ambassador Jemima Khan had recorded a special message for delegates on behalf on UNICEF UK, thanking them for their efforts to improve care for mothers and babies.
Baby Friendly also launched two important new resources:
- Our first e-learning package, aimed at providing GPs with the information they need to support breastfeeding mothers;
- A new leaflet called ‘Caring for your baby at night’, designed to give new parents helpful, practical advice on coping at night. This leaflet has received endorsement from the Royal College of Midwives and the Foundation for the Study of Infant Death.
Despite an acknowledgement that we are living in challenging times, the feeling was one of cautious optimism, with speakers looking at how to build on Baby Friendly’s success and “pulling the lens back further” to look at all the areas around feeding and nurturing that go into a child’s development in the early years.
Highlights included:
- Emilia Del Bono, from the Institute for Social and Economic Research, shared her findings that show better impacts of Baby Friendly Initiative accreditation than previously understood (which you can read here).
- Consultant Child Psychotherapist Robin Balbernie looked at how care in the first two years can affect a child’s brain development.
- Two talks from Paula Meier on the use of breastmilk in the NICU and the impact peer counsellors can have.
- John Carnochan, Director of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, with a very well-received talk on the links between a child’s upbringing and environment and the risk they face of falling into violent behaviour.
- Helen Ball and Janette Westman on the different approaches to sleeping environments from South Asian and White British families as shown in the Born in Bradford study (read more here).
Thank you to everyone who attended and helped make it such a warm and memorable conference. A full write-up will be included in the next Baby Friendly newsletter.
Click here to view photos from day one of the conference.
Click here to view photos from day two of the conference.
