Health visitors and infant feeding 'world class' (From Chard & Ilminster News)

Health visitors and infant feeding 'world class'

5:10pm Monday 6th February 2012 in Somerset

HEALTH visitors and infant feeding specialists in Somerset are well on the way to world class recognition for the quality of care and support they offer to local mothers and their babies.

The Somerset Health Visitor service has just been awarded the World Health Organisation and United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund’s ‘Baby Friendly Award (Stage II)’. The accolade is only bestowed on services which have been shown to demonstrate the highest professional standards as set out by the WHO and UNICEF’s Baby Friendly Initiative.

To achieve Stage II accreditation, local health visitors had to show they were implementing UNICEF’s seven point plan for sustaining breastfeeding mothers in the community.

Explaining why the WHO and UNICEF standards were so important, Louise Stickland, infant feeding specialist with the Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said: "Working toward the UNICEF accreditation standard has been an exciting but challenging experience.

“It is an important accolade for our services and one which we hope will give mothers extra reassurance that their health visitors are all meeting the highest standards of professional practice and service quality.

"We are now working to achieve the third and final accreditation stage of the initiative.”

The UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative for the community was first established in 1992 and works with health organisations to ensure a high standard of care in relation to infant feeding for pregnant women and mothers and babies; the assessment and accreditation process recognises those that have achieved the required standard.

Click on the Baby Friendly link for more information.