Maternity Care Practices Overview (from CDC.gov)

In the United States, nearly all infants are born in a hospital. Their stay is typically brief, but events during this time have lasting effects. Experiences with breastfeeding in the first hours and days of life significantly influence an infant’s later feeding. Several key supportive hospital practices can improve breastfeeding outcomes.

The Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding

The Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding were developed by a team of global experts and consist of evidence-based practices that have been shown to increase breastfeeding initiation and duration. Baby-Friendly® hospitals and birthing facilities must adhere to the Ten Steps to receive, and retain, a Baby-Friendly designation. The Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding are:

  1. Have a written infant feeding policy that is routinely communicated to staff and parents.
    1. Comply fully with the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and relevant World Health Assembly resolutions.
    2. Establish ongoing monitoring and data-management systems.
  2. Ensure that staff have sufficient knowledge, competence and skills to support breastfeeding.
  3. Discuss the importance and management of breastfeeding with pregnant women and their families.
  4. Facilitate immediate and uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact and support mothers to initiate breastfeeding as soon as possible after birth.
  5. Support mothers to initiate and maintain breastfeeding and manage common difficulties.
  6. Do not provide breastfed newborns any food or fluids other than breast milk, unless medically indicated.
  7. Enable mothers and their infants to remain together and to practice rooming-in 24 hours a day.
  8. Support mothers to recognize and respond to their infants’ cues for feeding.
  9. Counsel mothers on the use and risks of feeding bottles, artificial nipples and pacifiers.
  10. Coordinate discharge so that parents and their infants have timely access to ongoing support and care.

The Ten Steps are endorsed and promoted by the major maternal and child health authorities in the United States, including:

  • American Academy of Family Physicians
  • American Academy of Pediatrics
  • American College of Nurse-Midwives
  • American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
  • Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine
  • Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
  • Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN)
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
  • National WIC Association
  • U.S. Preventive Services Task Force
  • U.S. Surgeon General

Baby-Friendly Designation

The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) is a global program, developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, that encourages hospitals and birth centers to provide optimal care for infant feeding and mother-baby bonding. It focuses on promoting and supporting breastfeeding through the implementation of the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and adherence to the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.

WV facilities that are designated Baby-Friendly:

  • MonHealth Medical Center, Morgantown WV
  • WVU Medicine Berkeley Medical Center Martinsburg WV
  • WVU Medicine United Hospital Center, Bridgeport WV
  • Mon Health Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital

CHAMPS National

A project of the Center for Health Equity Education & Research (“CHEER”), the CHAMPS (Communities and Hospitals Advancing Maternity Practices) program entered into a 3-year cooperative agreement with the CDC to enroll and work with 100 hospitals across the US and territories to maternal child health practices.

Click here to find out more about the program.

7 West Virginia Hospitals were accepted into the program:

  • Charleston Area Medical Center – Women’s & Children’s Hospital
  • Cabell Huntington Hospital
  • WVU Medicine Princeton Community Hospital
  • WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital, Morgantown
  • WVU Medicine Thomas Hospital, Charleston
  • WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital
  • WVU Medicine Camden Clark