Public Health minister Anne Milton yesterday visited the UK’s first ever Baby Friendly city. Ms Milton, herself a nurse for 25 years, presented the Baby Friendly Award to NHS Bristol, which becomes the first Primary Care Trust (PCT) in England to reach this standard. Both city maternity units, Southmead and St Michael’s, have already gained the Baby Friendly Award, and now that the PCT has also been accredited it makes Bristol the first Baby Friendly City in the country.
Anne Milton said "I am delighted to be able to present the UNICEF Baby Friendly Award to NHS Bristol. This represents a huge amount of work, between Trusts, community partners and local organisations to make a real difference for mothers in Bristol. It means that they can be sure of getting consistently high levels of care around feeding their babies, from pregnancy through to birth and beyond and has already led to more women in Bristol breastfeeding for longer."
“Breastfeeding is proven to deliver health benefits for both mother and baby and I look forward to seeing the number of Baby Friendly organisations around the UK continue to grow.”
Sue Ashmore, Director of the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative, said: “Baby Friendly Bristol is an inspiring example of where cooperation and determination have produced incredible results, and will have an immediate beneficial effect on public health in Bristol. Only when we get more examples of innovative collaboration between the NHS, local authority, and the voluntary and private sectors, like we see here in Bristol, will we start to see a cultural change in the way society views breastfeeding. And only then will women really have a choice in how they choose to feed their babies.”
Deborah Evans, Chief Executive, NHS Bristol, said: “We are very proud of having achieved UNICEF UK Baby Friendly accreditation across the city in Bristol. This series of awards represents a lot of hard work from staff at the grass roots, and managers, to improve services so that they effectively deliver quality support for new mothers.
“Feedback from mothers gathered through the audit and assessment process has told us how much the mothers of Bristol value this improvement in services. A key to success has been the involvement of our many partners: acute Trusts, community service providers, voluntary groups, not for profit social enterprises, volunteers and the City Council, a truly whole community approach has been achieved and we are proud of the results that have been delivered.
In Bristol, the number of women breastfeeding at 6-8 weeks after birth has risen from 46% in 2006 to 57% in 2009 compared to a national average of 45%.
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