NWRHA pursues Baby-Friendly Status for PoS General Hospital

Breast-feeding is being promoted as a major way in feeding infants and protecting them against diseases because of the immunity they receive from their mother’s natural breast milk.

Trinidad and Tobago is one of over 150 countries to subscribe to the Baby- Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI), which was launched by the World Health Organisaton (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in 1991.

The initiative is a global effort to ensure that all maternity departments protected, promoted, supported and maintained breastfeeding.

The Health Ministry’s mandate is to address and help reverse the nation’s existing breastfeeding trend and encourage mothers to breastfeed.

In 2013, the NWRHA introduced the BFHI at the PoSGH to prioritise and promote breastfeeding with the aim of increasing breastfeeding rates within the region.

In TT, exclusive breastfeeding rates as of 2007 was 13 percent (UNICEF, 2009) ,which was well below the global average.

The WHO and UNICEF recommended that babies were to be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life. Unfortunately, less than 50 percent of children globally suckle at their mother’s breast for a minimum four months (WHO, 2003).

The NWRHA hoped to achieve Baby- Friendly Status for the hospital by the end of 2018, as it has successfully completed the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, and continued to adopt best practices in the field.

These steps were the required international framework under which all Baby- Friendly hospitals operated.

The framework required co-ordinated efforts between several of the region’s departments to educate and provide support for clients.

This included activities such as antenatal clinic lectures, health promotion activities, health fairs, childbirth education classes specific to breastfeeding, Annual Breastfeeding Week Celebrations which is held from August 1 -7th every year, Breastfeeding Training for Healthcare personnel at the POSGH and in the community, breastfeeding consultations and breastfeeding support group meetings.

Recently, the NWRHA established a support group BLISS (Breastfeeding Lifelong Investment So Simple) to support breastfeeding mothers. The support group utilises WhatsApp as the core communications method for its support.

BLISS is a 24-hour support group which provided advice on dietary needs, positioning and attachment for breastfeeding and other information to mothers.

Recent statistics at the PoSGH have shown that breastfeeding has grown from 27.78 percent in December 2014, to 51.69 percent in December 2016 based on an average of 290 live births. This was a 24 percent increase in just two years, it noted.