Backus striving for breastfeeding recognition

Hospital close to getting ‘baby-friendly’ status

Norwich — The William W. Backus Hospital is in the final year of a multiyear effort to become a “baby-friendly” birthing facility, a designation given to more than 500 U.S. hospitals as part of an effort by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund to encourage breastfeeding.

“We’re in the home stretch,” said Kara Giroux, a lactation consultant and community education coordinator who organized the effort to get the certification for Backus.

Giroux has led hospital staff since 2016 in amending policies and practices to bring Backus in line with the 10 requirements that birthing centers must meet before they get the designation.

Encouraging breastfeeding can improve babies’ health and strengthen their immune systems, helping to prevent conditions such as asthma, respiratory illness, heart disease and obesity, Giroux said.

But not all mothers know that, or feel comfortable breastfeeding, she said.

“We know that breastfeeding is the most nutritionally optimal food for all babies,” she said. “But it’s not everyone’s choice.”

Baby-friendly hospitals still leave it up to mothers to decide the best way to feed their babies.

“It’s not about making the decisions for them,” she said. “Some women are unable to, or choose not to, breastfeed for various reasons.”

The new feeding policies cover both bottle feeding and breastfeed-

ing, and includes educating new parents about the best way to take care of their babies overall.

“The goal is that all mothers will be cared for equally and educated to feed their babies and the best way for their family,” she said.

Giroux said more than 85 percent of the people who deliver their babies at Backus report that they would like to breastfeed, but that only about 60 percent of babies are exclusively breastfeeding when they leave the hospital.

The baby-friendly initiative is one way of bringing up the second statistic, she said. One way the hospital staff can do that is by teaching parents that breastfeeding is an intuitive process for babies, and that with patience most children will do it instinctively.

“(There’s) misunderstanding of the expectations of breastfeeding, and trust in the human body,” she said. “Healthy babies ... come out knowing how to breastfeed. (It’s about) trusting that your baby’s getting enough when you can’t see it.”

Among other requirements, certified baby-friendly hospitals must have a written breastfeeding policy, train all labor and delivery staff in hospital breastfeeding practices, encourage new mothers to breastfeed and not provide pacifiers or artificial nipples to breastfeeding babies.

They must also refrain from giving newborns food or drink other than breastmilk —not even sips of water — unless medically necessary, allow mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day, and refer mothers to breastfeeding support groups once they’re discharged from the hospital.

Nurses and medical staff both in the labor and delivery unit and across any unit where they have contact with infants or new mothers underwent varying degrees of training in the new policies and the benefits of breastfeeding.

Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London was designated a baby-friendly hospital in 2013.

The baby-friendly effort began at Backus when Giroux, a former labor and delivery nurse, took on the job as lactation consultant in 2016. Giroux has worked with staff across the hospital to meet the baby-friendly requirements for the last two years. A representative of Baby Friendly USA, the organization that certifies baby-friendly hospitals in the United States, will come to Backus this year for a final assessment and determine whether the hospital’s staff are following the requirements.

Giroux said her goal was to improve the hospital’s infant feeding practices; the certification is icing on the cake.

“This is a perk to the process,” she said.