Breastfeeding Is Skyrocketing At This New Jersey Hospital

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — A Newark medical center has joined a national movement that encourages mothers to breastfeed instead of giving their infants formula or other substitutes, earning Essex County’s first recognition as a “Baby-Friendly Hospital.”

According to administrators, about nine out of ten of newborns at University Hospital now receive some form of breast milk prior to leaving the facility. And although only 25 percent rely “exclusively on breastfeeding,” hospital staff are soon hoping to bump that number up to about 60 percent.

But University Hospital’s move towards breastmilk doesn’t stop there. Its staff conduct prenatal education about breastmilk benefits, organize training sessions and have stopped accepting free and subsidized supplies of breast milk substitutes, nipples or other feeding devices.

In addition, the medical center no longer distributes free samples of formula, avoids displaying “commercial logos” for formula and similar products, and has even created an obstetrician-led Breastfeeding Task Force, administrators say.

Why the move towards breastfeeding? Hospital staff claim that the practice has been demonstrated to lower the risks for certain diseases and to improve health outcomes for both mothers and their newborns.

According to Baby-Friendly USA:

• Scientific studies have shown us that breastfed children have far fewer and less serious illnesses than those who never receive breast milk, including a reduced risk of SIDS, childhood cancers, and diabetes
• Recent studies show that women who breastfeed enjoy decreased risks of breast and ovarian cancer, anemia, and osteoporosis
• In addition to the fact that breast milk is free, breastfeeding provides savings on health care costs and related time lost to care for sick children
• Breastfeeding uses none of the tin, paper, plastic, or energy necessary for preparing, packaging, and transporting artificial baby milks

BABY-FRIENDLY HOSPITALS

Launched in 1991 by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) is a global program to encourage mothers to nourish their newborn children with breast milk rather than formula or other substitutes.

In 2012, University Hospital was one of 89 hospitals nationally - and the only New Jersey facility - selected through a competitive process to join a Best Fed Beginnings initiative managed by nonprofit National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality and funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

According to University Hospital administrators, the initiative was designed to improve maternal care by targeting certain at-risk populations, including non-Hispanic African-Americans and patients insured under Medicaid or CHIP.

To be named a “Baby-Friendly Hospital,” facilities must:

• Have a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff
• Train all health care staff in the skills necessary to implement this policy
• Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding
• Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within one hour of birth
• Show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation, even if they are separated from their infants
• Give infants no food or drink other than breast-milk, unless medically indicated
• Practice rooming in - allow mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day
• Encourage breastfeeding on demand
• Give no pacifiers or artificial nipples to breastfeeding infants
• Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or birth center

According to Baby-Friendly USA, other “Baby-Friendly Hospitals” in New Jersey include:

• AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, Pomona
• Capital Health Medical Center- Hopewell, Pennington
• CentraState Medical Center, Freehold
• Inspira Medical Center Elmer, Elmer
• Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune
• Morristown Medical Center, Morristown
• Newton Medical Center, Newton
• Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, Camden
• Overlook Medical Center, Summit
• Southern Ocean Medical Center, Manahawkin

Photo: Flickr Commons

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