Delight as family service continues to be recognised as ‘Baby Friendly’
Support for new parents and their babies, in Northamptonshire, has once again been recognised by Unicef’s Baby Friendly Initiative.
The 0-19 service and Family Nurse Partnership, part of Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT), has retained the prestigious accreditation, recognising that staff promote and protect breastfeeding and provide high quality infant feeding support to families.
NHFT gained full accreditation in March 2020 and completed its successful re-assessment in March 2023. During the robust process, Baby Friendly assessors interviewed staff, managers and parents as well as reviewing training, policies and audits to ensure the required standards are being continued.
The service includes:
- Health Visitors and Community Nursery Nurses who provide universal support to all families with children under five
- Infant Feeding Team – a small team comprising of two Infant Feeding Leads / Lactation Consultants, an Infant feeding Health Visitor and four Infant Feeding Advisors who provide specialist feeding support to families
- Family Nurse Partnership – a targeted programme providing intensive support to teenage parents from pregnancy to age two
Katy Coles White, Infant Feeding Lead at NHFT, said: “We would like to say a huge well done to all our colleagues for supporting new parents and babies. Promoting and protecting breastfeeding, and encouraging positive early relationships ensures children have the best start in life.”
Emma Goulding, Infant Feeding Lead at NHFT, said: “This is a huge achievement, especially as we have had a pandemic between the awards. We are excited to embark on the next stage of our Baby Friendly Initiative journey which will be to work towards Gold accreditation over the next year. We would also like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all of the parents who agreed to be interviewed by the Baby Friendly assessors and gave their feedback.”
Find out more about NHFT’s 0-19 team at www.nhft.nhs.uk/0-19
For more information about the children resources hub visit www.nhft.nhs.uk/childrenshub