The Baby-Friendly Initiative is a global programme between The World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF. It is based on a set of evidenced-based standards that are designed to provide parents with the best possible care to build close and loving relationships with their baby and to feed their baby in ways which will support optimum health and development.
UNICEF UK (external website)
The Baby-Friendly Initiative helps to ensure that services are providing a supportive informed environment for all families. In Children's Centres we are assessed on:
- support for pregnant women
- support for Infant Feeding
- close and loving relationships.
Services across maternity, neonatal, health visiting and Children's Centres implement the standards in stages over a number of years. At each stage, they are externally assessed by UNICEF UK. The stages look at policies and procedures, staff training and families experiences. When all the stages are passed services are accredited as baby-friendly.
The Gold award is the highest award to be achieved as part of Baby-Friendly Accreditation. East Riding Children's Centres are very proud to have achieved the Gold award jointly with our partners at Humber NHS teaching foundation trust. We are the first integrated service in the country to achieve the award as well as the first Children's Centre service. The Gold award demonstrates that our services have the leadership, culture, monitoring and progression in place to sustain the baby-friendly standards and ensure families living in the East Riding receive the best possible care.
East Riding Children's Centres provide a range of services to help support you and your baby to develop close and loving relationships including ante-natal parent education, baby massage, babies playing and infant feeding support. If you would like any support or more information on how we can support your journey with your new baby please contact your local Children's Centre.
More information can be found on Baby-Friendly Initiative (external website)