Standards
The health-care facility should:

• have a breastfeeding policy that covers all of the Seven Point Plan and prohibits the display or distribution of materials that promote breastmilk substitutes, feeding bottles, teats and dummies, and prohibits the sale of breastmilk substitutes on health-care premises or by health-care staff
• ensure that the policy is communicated to pregnant women and parents; they should be able to access a copy of the full policy if they wish to do so*
• audit compliance with the policy at least every year

Assessment
The breastfeeding policy will be assessed before the Certificate of Commitment is awarded. It will be reviewed again at Stage 1 assessment.

Requirements at Stage 1:

• A breastfeeding policy that covers all of the Baby Friendly best practice standards.
• A written description of the mechanism for ensuring that the policy is communicated to pregnant women and parents in an appropriate and effective manner.
• A written description of the mechanism for auditing the breastfeeding policy.

Writing a breastfeeding policy
For help with writing a breastfeeding policy, choose from the list of Point 1 further information in the orange box on the right.

* Community facilities will be required to make an individual decision regarding the optimum method for communicating the policy to pregnant women and parents. This may be by poster display, written leaflet, insertion into existing documentation, etc.