Perth District Health Unit Achieves Prestigious Baby-Friendly Designation!

Perth County ― The Perth District Health Unit has achieved Baby-Friendly Initiative designation. The Baby-Friendly Initiative (BFI) is an international program that works towards protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding all around the world. It was created by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund. In Canada, the BFI designation is awarded by the Breastfeeding Committee for Canada.

An organization that receives Baby-Friendly designation is known to encourage and help women to successfully breastfeed their babies. Baby-Friendly facilities educate and support pregnant women and their families to make informed infant feeding decisions.

The Perth District Health Unit began its journey towards designation in 2011. The designation process included, among other activities:

implementing an infant feeding surveillance system to track local breastfeeding rates

reviewing over 1,100 resources to make sure they are BFI compliant

a pre-assessment in 2014 to help prepare for the final assessment

a three-day assessment in February 2015 that involved interviewing staff and community partners.

“We are pleased to receive this prestigious designation and we thank our staff and our community partners for their support and efforts,” says Dr. Miriam Klassen. “We also urge other health institutions to seek the designation so that people in Perth County can receive high quality infant feeding services from all organizations.”

A formal presentation awarding the BFI designation to the Perth District Health Unit was made on Tuesday, April 7 by Marg La Salle, a Lead Assessor from Breastfeeding Committee for Canada.

For more information on BFI and breastfeeding:

Call Health Line at 519-271-7600 ext 267 or toll-free at 1-877-271-7348 ext 267

Visit www.pdhu.on.ca

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PDHealthUnit .

Over 150,000 Monthly Readers! 1 Million+ Across the entire FreePress Network.