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Healthy People 2010 has established targets for breastfeeding rates. These targets include 75% initiation rate for breastfeeding mothers at birth; 50% to remain breastfeeding at six months; and 25% to continue breastfeeding at twelve months (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2004). Texas Health is committed to being a leader in healthcare in north Texas and we strive to provide the people in our community with the best healthcare possible and we feel it is our duty to the nation to demonstrate innovation and excellence in the way healthcare is delivered. This is why Texas Health chose to support Healthy People 2010’s goals by implementing the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) in all eleven hospitals that provide women and infants services.

In 2004, under the direction of the Women, Infants, and Children’s Clinical and Operational Performance Improvement Council (WIC COPIC), the Baby Friendly Task Force was formed. Each hospital with a women’s unit had a lactation consultant on the task force. Using the BFHI, the task force developed a time line and an action plan that would move each facility through the “Ten Steps for Successful Breastfeeding.” The task force developed policies and educational materials that incorporated evidenced based care such as skin-to-skin contact, non-separation, supplementation guidelines, and restrictions on pacifier use. The group was able to leverage the size of the system as one buyer group to obtain cost effective pricing for formula and staff/patient education materials. This also allowed us to keep education and marketing information consistent across the system. Members of the task force held mock surveys at each site in preparation for actual survey. Participants felt this was beneficial in identifying gaps between theory and practice. The task force met monthly to review progress and share challenges and successes.

There are currently only 83 hospitals in the United States that have received the Baby Friendly designation. To date we have the only three hospitals in Texas to be designated Baby Friendly. We will have three more hospitals that will have their site survey during the last quarter of 2009 and the remaining five hospitals plan to be surveyed in 2010. The task force continues to meet monthly. The first educational focus was on training the staff nurses on assisting the lactating woman with breastfeeding and educating the public about the benefits of breastfeeding. Now it is time to go deeper. It is time to educate nursing staff and the public to make the paradigm shift from breastfeeding as nutrition to health promotion. It has been a long journey with impressive rewards along the way: increased breastfeeding initiation and duration rates; decreased rates of hyperbilirubinemia; improved weight gain; increased skin-to-skin contact; increased patient satisfaction; and increased market share. The greatest reward is the improved health of our tiniest patients and their families.