Southmead Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit’s (NICU) supportive approach to breastfeeding has been recognised with the Baby Friendly Award from UNICEF UK.
This prestigious award recognises the feeding support mothers and families receive from NICU staff to help babies get the best possible start in life.
It is Breastfeeding Awareness Week and we are taking this opportunity to highlight our commitment to creating an environment that promotes and supports breastfeeding for all women, babies and families using our services and our staff.
We first gained Baby Friendly Status for our maternity services back in 2005 and have retained it ever since. Our NICU team has been working through the accreditation over the last few years and found out they had achieved the final stage towards the end of 2022. And now the certificate is proudly displayed within the unit.
Providing breast milk is encouraged in NICU and mothers are supported to establish breastfeeding and to express milk for their babies until they are able to successfully feed.
All clinical staff on the unit are trained to support parents with breastfeeding specialist staff and advisors also on the unit to provide additional advice and help.
As part of the final stage of the accreditation process, mothers were interviewed about their experiences on the unit and were overwhelmingly positive with their feedback, with 100% saying they were very happy with their care on the unit.
NICU Infant Feeding Specialist Nurse, Cathy Budd, said: “This accreditation is recognition of the efforts of the whole NICU team working in partnership with parents to give babies the best possible start in life.
“It is so important to us all to support families on NICU as they start out on their feeding journey and it was wonderful to hear such positive experiences shared by parents as part of this process.
“We are delighted to have received the Baby Friendly Award for our unit in recognition of everyone’s efforts.”