The Baby Friendly Hospital more austral of the world
From Diario El Sureño - Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
USHUAIA.-The Ministry of Health of Argentina awarded the title of "Baby Friendly Hospital" to the Regional Hospital of Ushuaia, in recognition of the work undertaken within the Maternal Child and Youth Program.
To achieve this designation, the hospital had to train their staff and meet a series of requirements developed
in conjunction by UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), that includes "to have a written policy on to breastfeeding”, as well as "to promote exclusive breastfeeding for the newborns”.
Other steps to meet requires to inform pregnant women of the benefits of breast-feeding; to facilitate the coexistence of the mother and child in the first 24 hours; to help mothers initiate breast-feeding during the
next half hour childbirth and encourage the establishment of mother-to-mother support groups for breast-feeding, ensuring that mothers are advised to contact them.
It´s important to note that Tierra del Fuego is one of the first provinces to give six months´ maternity leave to female officers dependent on the government.
These actions, as a result threw a rate of 56 percent of exclusive breastfeeding for children up to 6 months, while the national average is about 36 percent.
