Category: Baby Friendly USA

Nurses Quit Because Of Horrific Experiences Working In Baby-Friendly Hospitals

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Photo Credit: Victorian Agency for Health Information

We regularly receive messages from nurses, physicians, LCs, and other health professionals. They express their concerns while asking for help and patient resources. They tell us their stories and they need support and direction on what to do about unethical and dangerous policies they are forced to practice. We collected their stories and are beginning a blog series of health professionals who are now speaking out about the Baby-Friendly Health Initiative and the WHO Ten Steps of Breastfeeding.

Dianna Talter, Pediatric Emergency Department Nurse

I am a pediatric emergency department nurse traveler and sometimes, I worked on the mother-baby unit. I will never work on a mother-baby unit again because of the terrible conditions that mothers and babies are forced to endure because of the “Baby-Friendly” (BFHI) protocol!

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U.S. Study Shows Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative Does Not Work

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by Christie del Castillo-Hegyi, M.D.

On October 14, 2019, the Journal of Pediatrics published astonishing findings regarding the effects of the Baby-Friendly hospital certification on sustained breastfeeding rates as defined by the 2020 Healthy People Goals of: 

  1. any breastfeeding at 6 and 12 months
  2. exclusive breastfeeding at 3 and 6 months. 

They did so by measuring the relationship between statewide breastfeeding initiation rates data and the above breastfeeding rates. They then measured the contribution of Baby-Friendly hospital designation on these same breastfeeding outcomes.

According to the study authors, the increase in hospital designation in the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) began in 2011 when the U.S. Surgeon General issued a call to action for maternity care practices throughout the U.S. to support breastfeeding. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) became involved in promoting the BFHI policies in hospitals and health facilities, as breastfeeding was thought to be associated with lower rates of childhood obesity. The assumption was that by increasing breastfeeding rates through the BFHI, there would be a concomitant decline in childhood obesity. Upon initiation of this program, the CDC initiated surveillance of state-specific data on breastfeeding outcomes after discharge including BFHI designation rates. This data is made available to the public through the CDC Breastfeeding Report Card, which provides annual reports from 2007 through 2014 and biennial reports from 2014.

As expected, they found that states with higher breastfeeding initiation rates had higher rates of these sustained breastfeeding outcomes. You cannot have high breastfeeding rates unless mothers are given education and successfully initiate breastfeeding. However, when they measured the effects of Baby-Friendly certification, this is what they found.

“Baby-Friendly designation did not demonstrate a significant association with any post-discharge breastfeeding outcome (Figures 1, B and 2, B). There was no association between Baby-Friendly designation and breastfeeding initiation rates.” Continue reading →

Fed is Best Philadephia Billboard Campaign

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Jody Segrave-Daly, RN, IBCLC and Christie del Castillo-Hegyi, M.D.

On October 16, 2019, the Fed is Best Foundation billboard went up on I-95 Northbound, 0.3 miles south of Bridge St. in the heart of Philadelphia. This billboard was purchased with donations from private family and health professional supporters of the Fed is Best Foundation. It was a billboard that did not mince words with regard to the risk of newborn brain injury and disability from insufficient feeding complications, namely phototherapy-requiring jaundice. 

Since then, several anti-Fed is Best, lactivist groups have posted about the billboard showing their clear concern about the effects of fully informing the public of these serious risks of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative. We are saddened to see them express little concern about the harm caused to babies and their families by a policy that routinely shames families who choose to use formula, normalizes signs of persistent infant hunger and exaggerates the risks of formula while hiding the risk of brain injury from insufficient feeding while exclusively breastfeeding.

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An Open Letter To IBCLCs from another IBCLC Who Supports The Fed Is Best Foundation

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I’m an IBCLC who supports the Fed is Best Foundation.  Probably many of you who read this are going to roll your eyes and assume I’m just their sock puppet, but for those of you who are still listening, I’m going to tell you why I support an organization who talks about the “risks of exclusive breastfeeding” and states that the Baby-Friendly protocols “endanger newborns.”  I know better than to put my name to this because I don’t want to subject myself or my children to what other supporters have faced—unspeakably cruel messages and literal death threats. I wish I were making this up. Continue reading →

National Women’s Health Advocate Describes How A Baby-Friendly Hospital Starved Her Baby

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Sarah Christopherson is a mother and the Policy Advocacy Director at the National Women’s Health Network, a non-profit advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. She talks about her breastfeeding experiences and her recent experience in a Baby-Friendly hospital where her child became severely dehydrated and lost 15% of her birth weight while in the hospital. She discusses how policies can negatively affect patient health and how systemic change is needed to support positive patient health outcomes and prevent patient coercion.