Baby Friendly standards
The Baby Friendly standards provide services with a roadmap for transforming care for all babies, their mothers and families.
Our staged accreditation programme enables services to support families with feeding and help parents build a close and loving relationship with their baby. You can find out more about the standards in our Guide to the Standards.
Standards for health services
Stage 1 of the Baby Friendly journey involves services putting policies in place to support the standards, as well as planning an education programme to ensure staff have a thorough understanding of infant feeding and the importance of early relationships to childhood development.
Stage 2 focuses on delivering the education programme planned in Stage 1 – empowering staff with the skills and knowledge to support infant feeding and parent-infant relationship building.
Stage 3 focuses on specific ways to transform care for families – the standards differ between service types to respond to families’ changing needs.
Maternity standards enable staff to:
- Support pregnant women to recognise the importance of breastfeeding and early relationships for the health and wellbeing of their baby
- Support all mothers and babies to initiate a close relationship and feeding soon after birth
- Enable mothers to get breastfeeding off to a good start
- Support mothers to make informed decisions regarding the introduction of food or fluids other than breastmilk
- Support parents to have a close and loving relationship with their baby.
Stage 3 focuses on specific ways to transform care for families – the standards differ between service types to respond to families’ changing needs.
Neonatal standards enable staff to:
- Support parents to have a close and loving relationship with their baby
- Enable babies to receive breastmilk and to breastfeed when possible
- Value parents as partners in care.
The impact of the neonatal standards
- Royal Devon & Exeter’s neonatal unit was the first to achieve Baby Friendly accreditation: find out how they’ve transformed their care for families.
- Bradford’s neonatal unit was the first level 3 neonatal unit (caring for babies with the most complex health needs) to achieve accreditation: read about their journey and the value of putting parents at the heart of care.
Stage 3 focuses on specific ways to transform care for families – the standards differ between service types to respond to families’ changing needs.
Health visiting/public health nursing services standards enable staff to:
- Support pregnant women to recognise the importance of breastfeeding and early relationships for the health and wellbeing of their baby
- Enable mothers to continue breastfeeding for as long as they wish
- Support mothers to make informed decisions regarding the introduction of food or fluids other than breastmilk
- Support parents to have a close and loving relationship with their baby.
Stage 3 focuses on specific ways to transform care for families – the standards differ between service types to respond to families’ changing needs.
Children’s centre standards enable staff to:
- Support pregnant women to recognise the importance of early relationships for the health and wellbeing of their baby
- Protect and support breastfeeding in all areas of the service
- Support parents to have a close and loving relationship with their baby.
These standards support services to embed high quality care for the longer term, focusing on four themes:
- Leadership: Develop a leadership team that promotes the Baby Friendly standards
- Culture: Foster an organisational culture that protects the Baby Friendly standards
- Monitoring: Construct robust monitoring processes to support the Baby Friendly standards
- Progression: Continue to develop the service in order to sustain the Baby Friendly standards.
The impact of Achieving Sustainability
- East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust was the first maternity service to receive the Gold Award – find out about their journey and the difference it’s making to families (pdf download).
Standards for universities
Our university standards for pre-registration Midwifery and Health Visiting courses help ensure that newly qualified midwives and health visitors have the strong foundation of knowledge needed to support families.
Standard 1 involves the university programme making a written commitment to adhere to the Baby Friendly standards, confirmed by a Head of Department or equivalent.
Standard 2 is the core of the university standards – ensuring that all students are equipped with the knowledge and skills to implement the Baby Friendly learning outcomes in the relevant healthcare setting. This learning is based on the following themes:
- Understand breastfeeding
- Support infant feeding
- Support close and loving relationships
- Manage the challenges
- Promote positive communication.
Standard 3 requires that teaching is provided without involvement, sponsorship or promotional materials from companies covered by the WHO International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and subsequent WHA resolutions (the Code) so as to ensure that students access only scientific and factual information about infant feeding, free from commercial interests. Find out more in Working Within the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes: A Guide for Health Workers .
The Baby Friendly university standards should be read in conjunction with the standards for maternity, neonatal, health visiting and children’s centre services.