Baby-Friendly Hospitals

We are Baby-Friendly at the San Martin and Siena Campuses!

The Birth Centers at the San Martin and Siena Campuses are the first in southern Nevada to earn the prestigious Baby-Friendly USA designations. Hospitals with the Baby-Friendly designation have a demonstrably higher level of expertise in support and education of mothers interested in breastfeeding their newborns.

The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative is a global program launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to encourage and recognize hospitals that offer an optimal level of care for infant feeding and mother/baby bonding.

Based on the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, this prestigious international award recognizes birth facilities that offer breastfeeding mothers the information, confidence, and skills needed to successfully initiate and continue breastfeeding their babies. The Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding are:

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