Latest update November 8th, 2024 1:00 AM
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Six of 12 assessed hospitals accredited as baby-friendly facilities
Two hospitals have been re-accredited with the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) status, while four others have for the first time been bestowed with this title.
The West Demerara Regional Hospital, one of the Baby Friendly Hospitals.
Retaining the BFHI status are the West Demerara Regional (Region Three) and Upper Demerara (Region 10) hospitals. The newly accredited hospitals are the privately-operated Davis Memorial Hospital (Region Four), the Mahaicony Cottage Hospital (Region Five), the Mahdia District Hospital (Region Eight) and the Lethem Regional Hospital (Region Nine).
Information relating to this development was recently released by the Ministry of Public Health as part of its efforts to review the performance of the Ministry during the past year.
The assessments of the accredited hospitals occurred during the period February to March 2015. A total of 12 out of 19 hospitals in the BFHI programme had signaled their readiness to be assessed for the status.
According to information out of the Ministry, the hospitals were assessed by an External Assessment Team recruited by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) to determine their eligibility to be awarded the baby-friendly status.
The hospitals were assessed by Regions, with those eligible in Region Two being Suddie Regional Hospital and the Oscar Joseph District Hospital in Charity. The West Demerara Regional Hospital was the only hospital assessed and accredited in Region Three. In fact the Region Three Hospital was the first hospital to boast the baby-friendly status.
In Region Four, the assessed hospitals were the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation and the Davis Memorial Hospital, with the latter being the only to be accredited. The Mahaicony Hospital was assessed in Region Five while the New Amsterdam Regional and the Skeldon District Hospitals in Region Six were assessed.
None of the two Region Six hospitals qualified for accreditation. But like the Mahdia District Hospital in Region Eight, the Lethem Regional Hospital in Region Nine was assessed and qualified for the first time. The Region 10 Linden Hospital Complex was also assessed but failed to make the required accreditation grade. However, the Upper Demerara Hospital was able to again claim the status.
Attaining the baby-friendly status means that hospitals must be able to embrace the 10 steps to successful breastfeeding.
It was pointed out that every facility providing maternity services and care for newborn infants should have a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff; train all health care staff in skills necessary to implement this policy; inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding; help mothers initiate breastfeeding within a half-hour of birth; show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation even if they have to be separated from their infants; give infants no food or drink other than breast milk unless medically indicated; allow mothers and their infants to remain together 24-hours per day; encourage breastfeeding on demand; give no artificial teats or pacifiers to breastfeeding infants and foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or clinic.
The six hospitals which were accredited have been encouraged by Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton, to maintain their baby-friendly status, while the remaining six that were assessed but weren’t accredited have since undergone additional assessment as they have been tasked with strengthening their areas of weaknesses. Reports out of the Ministry are that these hospitals are close to being awarded the baby-friendly status this year.
According to an optimistic Minister Norton, work will continue to ensure that there are Baby-Friendly hospitals in all of our Regions.”
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