Going Baby Friendly

Our university accreditation programme is aimed at departments responsible for pre-registration midwifery and health visitor/public health nurse education. It ensures that newly qualified midwives and health visitors are equipped with the basic knowledge and skills they need to support infant feeding and relationship building effectively.

An increasing number of universities are now seeing the benefits of achieving UNICEF UK Baby Friendly accreditation for their midwifery or health visitor/public health nurse programmes:

• It raises the profile of infant feeding and enables it to be given a strong focus in the programmes.
• It helps to raise the profile of universities, both with the Trusts who commission their services and with students deciding where to apply
• The journey to accreditation helps develop good links with the practice placement areas
• Implementing the Baby Friendly learning outcomes will assist with meeting the NMC skills clusters requirements for those involved with student midwife education
• Students’ confidence in supporting mothers increases as does their employability, as Trusts recognise the benefit of engaging staff who do not need further infant feeding training.

To start your university’s journey to accreditation, see our guidance on implementing the Baby Friendly university standards. You may also want to start thinking about attending Baby Friendly training.

Please note: The standards for universities were developed in 2005. Since then, the standards for all services have continued to evolve in response to updates to the evidence base and feedback from those implementing Baby Friendly. The UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative is currently reviewing its university standards. Visit our webpage to access support in navigating the changes, including details and resources to help with implementation.