Six hospitals attain baby-friendly status

Jun 22, 2016 News

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Six of 12 hospitals in the “Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative” (BFHI) were on Monday formally accredited by the Ministry of Public Health at a ceremony held at the Ocean View International Hotel, Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown.

The Ministry of Public Health had earlier this year announced that in addition to two hospitals that were for some time baby-friendly, four more had attained that status.
The West Demerara Regional (Region Three) and Upper Demerara (Region 10) hospitals were among the first in the country to be recognized as baby-friendly, but subsequently the privately-operated Davis Memorial Hospital (Region Four), Mahaicony Cottage Hospital (Region Five), Mahdia District Hospital (Region Eight) and Lethem Regional Hospital (Region Nine) were able to gain the baby-friendly status too.
Among the criteria to attain baby-friendly hospital status is to have written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff. Also it is required that all pregnant women are informed about the benefits and management of breastfeeding, and newborn infants are given no food or drink other than breast milk unless medically indicated.
Moreover, Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton, during his address at the accreditation ceremony on Monday stressed the importance of breastfeeding.
“The Ministry of Public Health, and by extension the Government of Guyana, recognizes that breastfeeding is a unique process that provides ideal nutrition for infants and contributes to their growth and development. For this reason, the Food Policy Division of the Ministry has collaborated with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to implement the baby-friendly hospital initiative here in Guyana,” he said.
Dr. Norton pointed out too that in 1992, when the Breastfeeding project was launched globally, it was obvious that Guyana’s culture of exclusive and prolonged breastfeeding was on the decline.
“It was no coincidence that Guyana also had relatively high infant mortality and morbidity rates due to diarrhoeal diseases, acute respiratory tract infection and malnutrition,” he added.
The overall objective of the breastfeeding project from its inception was therefore to improve the health of infants through the promotion, protection and support of breastfeeding.
The coordination of the conduct of the BFHI External Assessment was done during the period February to March 2015, and 12 out of the 19 hospitals in the BFHI programme had signaled their readiness to be assessed to determine their BFHI status. However, only six of those 12 hospitals have now attained baby-friendly status.
“It is noteworthy that Guyana is the only country in the English-speaking Caribbean with hospitals accredited with the baby-friendly hospital status. I wish to take this opportunity to thank all of those persons who worked tirelessly to ensure that the necessary criteria were met, and to urge you to maintain baby-friendly status in those six hospitals,” Dr. Norton stated.
The Minister expressed special thanks to WHO and UNICEF for their invaluable support over the years and urged the remaining hospitals under the BFHI to continue working hard to attain baby-friendly hospital status.
According to him, the aim is to ensure that there are baby-friendly hospitals in all of the Regions of Guyana.
According to information out of the Ministry, the hospitals were assessed by an External Assessment Team recruited by 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 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 baby-friendly status. 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.
In addition to the accreditation ceremony, a two-day follow-up workshop which is in preparation for the next round of BFHI External Assessment, also commenced on Monday.
The next round of BFHI External Assessment proposed to be conducted will be during the period June – July 2016 and the reassessment will be in 2017/2018.
Sensitization on the Code of Marketing of Breast milk substitutes, the first 1000 days of life and expanding the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, are among the key areas of focus of the workshop.

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