Six hospitals accredited as baby-friendly
Public Health Minister Dr George Norton and heads of the accredited hospitals
Public Health Minister Dr George Norton and heads of the accredited hospitals

SIX hospitals were on Sunday accredited with Baby-Friendly Hospital status as the Ministry of Public Health (MPH) continues to implement the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).The six hospitals are the West Demerara Regional Hospital, Davis Memorial Hospital, Mahaicony Cottage Hospital, Mahdia District Hospital, Lethem Regional Hospital and the Upper Demerara Hospital.

The criteria to attain baby friendly hospital status includes having a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff; informing all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding; and giving newborn infants no food or drink other than breast milk, unless medically indicated.

Speaking at the accreditation ceremony, held at the Ocean View International Hotel at Liliendaal, ECD, Public Health Minister Dr. George Norton 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 WHO and UNICEF to implement the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) here in Guyana,” the minister said.

Dr. Norton pointed out that when the Breastfeeding project was launched globally in 1992, 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.

It was noted that the overall objective of the breastfeeding project was, from its inception, to improve the health of infants through the promotion, protection and support of breastfeeding. The co-ordination 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 signalled their readiness to be assessed to determine their BFHI status.

Six of these twelve hospitals have now attained Baby-Friendly Hospital 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 6 hospitals,” Dr. Norton stated.

The subject 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 assiduously 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.

In addition to the accreditation ceremony, a two-day follow-up workshop which is in preparation for the next round of BFHI External Assessment was also opened. The next round of the BFHI External Assessment is proposed to be conducted in June/July 2016, and the reassessment in 2017/2018.

Sensitization on the Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, the first 1000 days of life, and expanding the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative are among the key areas of focus of the workshop. Minister Norton urged the participants to take full advantage of this workshop, and he wished them successful deliberations.

(GINA)

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