Thursday, September 4, 2008

Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI)

This is some details about BFHI..!



The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) is a global program sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to encourage and recognize hospitals and birthing centers that offer an optimal level of care for lactation. The BFHI assists hospitals in giving breastfeeding mothers the information, confidence, and skills needed to successfully initiate and continue breastfeeding their babies and gives special recognition to hospitals that have done so.

In many other countries around the world, hospitals have already received Baby-Friendly Hospital designations from their national authority. More than 19,000 international maternity facilities have received the Baby-Friendly Award

Medical practitioners never tire of listing the virtues of exclusive breastfeeding. But fact remains that a considerable percentage of mothers are bound by tradition and do not practice exclusive breastfeeding. While some ultra-modern urbanized moms feel breastfeeding may spoil their figures, there is yet a larger number that often deprive their infant of this ‘manna from heaven’ due to baseless myths, traditions and, at times, even the lack of knowledge on correct breastfeeding procedure.

Keeping this in perspective, a group of trainers comprising 26 young men and women have been on a mission of creating awareness about breastfeeding in three blocks of Lalitpur district for the last four months. Through a UNICEF-supported Baby Friendly Community Health Initiative (BFHI) project, they reach out to pregnant women and lactating mothers.

This is enough perhaps..

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