6 May 2021

​Women giving birth at Wexham Park Hospital can have confidence midwives there have the skills and knowledge to help them give their babies the best start in life.

The hospital’s maternity team has achieved Stage 2 of UNICEF UK’s Baby Friendly Initiative and is now just one step away from becoming fully accredited by the children’s charity programme.

In the UK the Baby Friendly Initiative promotes and supports breastfeeding and aims to strengthen all mother-baby and family relationships.

To reach Stage 2, the Wexham Park team had to demonstrate that staff had been trained to UNICEF’s high standards in helping women to make informed decisions.

Claire Essery, infant feeding specialist midwife at the Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Wexham Park Hospital, said: “Breastfeeding is incredibly beneficial to both mother and baby. For a child, those first six months of breast milk really supports their cognitive and psychological development as well as their immune system.

“It reduces the likelihood of the child developing gastroenteritis, infections, obesity or diabetes, and it lays the foundations for their long-term health. For mums we know it reduces the risk of breast and ovarian cancers, osteoporosis, heart disease and postnatal depression.

“But being Baby Friendly isn’t just about breastfeeding. It’s about having open conversations with women so that they can make informed choices about feeding their babies and building relationships with them.

“It’s about encouraging skin-to-skin contact during the baby’s first feed, whether that’s from the breast or bottle, and helping women get feeding off to a good start and enhancing their baby’s development.”

Wexham Park’s maternity team hopes to complete the final Stage 3 accreditation process in 2022 and join Frimley Park Hospital in achieving full Baby Friendly status.