Flushing Hospital Medical Center is proud to be recognized as a Baby Friendly Designated Facility.

Receiving the distinguished Baby-Friendly designation means that Flushing Hospital is committed to upholding the strict breastfeeding/chestfeeding and maternal care guidelines established by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

As a Baby Friendly designated hospital, Flushing Hospital are also required to adhere to the “Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding” and educate families to make informed decisions about infant feeding.

The Ten Steps To Successful Breastfeeding include:

Critical Management Procedures:

1a. Comply fully with the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and relevant World Health Assembly resolutions.

1b. Have a written infant feeding policy that is routinely communicated to staff and parents.

1c. Establish ongoing monitoring and data-management systems.

2. Ensure that staff have sufficient knowledge, competence, and skills to support breastfeeding/chestfeeding.

Key clinical practices:

3. Discuss the importance and management of breastfeeding/chestfeeding with pregnant women and their families.

4. Facilitate immediate and uninterrupted skin-to-skin contact and support mothers to initiate breastfeeding/chestfeeding as soon as possible after birth.

5. Support mothers to initiate and maintain breastfeeding/chestfeeding and manage common difficulties.

6. Do not provide breastfed/chestfed newborns any food or fluids other than human milk, unless medically indicated.

7. Enable mothers and their infants to remain together and to practice rooming-in 24 hours a day.

8. Support mothers to recognize and respond to their infants’ cues for feeding.

9. Counsel mothers on the use and risks of feeding bottles, teats, and pacifiers.

10. Coordinate discharge so that parents and their infants have timely access to ongoing support and care

Flushing Hospital supports breastfeeding/chestfeeding as the preferred form of infant feeding due to the number of health benefits to both mother and baby.