engleski

The present and the future of Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative in the NICUs

Breast milk is the preferred method of premature infants’ feeding as it contributes to their growth, development and overall health outcomes. Every facility that takes care of premature infants should have a program focused on breastfeeding support in this vulnerable group of children. One of such programs is the Neo-BFHI (The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative for Neonatal Wards) developed by The Nordic and Quebec Working Group in 2012. The Neo-BFHI represents the expansion of the World Health Organization (WHO)/UNICEF BFHI Global Criteria to neonatal wards. The Neo-BFHI containing "Three guiding principles" and the expanded "Ten steps" and calls for compliance with the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and subsequent relevant World Health Assembly resolutions (Code). The Neo-BFHI standards and criteria were developed and published in the Neo-BFHI Core document in 2015. The educational material, the Self-Appraisal Tool and External Assessment Tool were developed as well. Neo-BFHI follows closely the original BFHI and therefore can be included in global strategies and national plans. In 2017, an international Self-Assessment survey of policies and practices to protect, promote and support breastfeeding in neonatal wards was conducted in more than 30 countries worldwide. The results of this survey will allow the neonatal wards to make a baseline evaluation and get an idea of their compliance compared with their own country and international. Also, the results of the survey will make it possible to identify the obstacles for the Neo-BFHI implementation such as changing attitudes and practices among NICU staff, allowing parents unrestricted access to their infant, prolonged skin contact / kangaroo care, involvement of parents as partners in care. Overcoming these obstacles will be a major challenge for NICU healthcare staff in the near future. The success in mastering this task should be one of the measures of quality of care in the NICU, especially in the terms of the salutogenic approach to health.

Neo-BFHI, NICU, breastfeeding promotion

nije evidentirano