Chelsea and Westminster Maternity Unit fully accredited by UNICEF

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital maternity department were presented with a plaque from UNICEF UK Director of Programmes, Teresa Bergin, for achieving full Baby Friendly status on Thursday 4 July.

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital is only the fourth Trust in London to achieve full Baby Friendly status from UNICEF.

Vivien Bell, Head of Maternity, said: “We are very proud to have achieved full baby-friendly status from UNICEF. It is a prestigious award and a great achievement for our teams to be recognised.”

The Baby Friendly Initiative is a worldwide programme of the World Health Organization and UNICEF. The initiative works with maternity units to ensure the best start for mothers and babies, by giving evidenced based information on feeding choices, helping initiate successful breastfeeding and supporting mothers who choose not to breastfeed. The assessment and accreditation process recognises hospitals that have achieved the required standard.

Vivien continues: “We support mothers and their new-born babies to help give them the best start in life and establish a strong relationship. We help to build bonds through early skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding support. We have dedicated specialist infant feeding midwives who work with mothers until they are confident breastfeeding their babies. Equally we will support mothers who decide not to breastfeed to ensure they establish the same bond and relationship in those first hours and days.”