Organizations & Resources

The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) is a global program sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to encourage and recognize hospitals and birthing centers that offer an optimal level of care for infant feeding. The BFHI promotes, protects, and supports breastfeeding through the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding for Hospitals:

1 - Have a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff.
2 - Train all health care staff in skills necessary to implement this policy.
3 - Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding.
4 - Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within one hour of birth.
5 - Show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation, even if they are separated from their infants.
6 - Give newborn infants no food or drink other than breastmilk, unless medically indicated.
7 - Practice “rooming in”-- allow mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day.
8 - Encourage breastfeeding on demand.
9 - Give no pacifiers or artificial nipples to breastfeeding infants.
10 - Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or clinic

Infant Risk Center

The Breastfeeding Task Force of Greater Los Angeles (BFTFGLA)

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC)

Evergreen Perinatal Education

Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA)

International Lactation Consultants Association (ILCA)

Infant Feeding Action Coalition (INFACT) Canada

Journal of Human Lactation

Breastfeeding Materials

La Leche league International

La Leche League of Washington

March of Dimes Birth Defect Foundation