Newborn baby sleeping on mother's chest.

Baby-Friendly USA Acknowledges Their Mistakes; Are They Going To Make Real Changes In The New Year Or Are They Providing Lip Service To Mothers?

January 1, 2020May 7, 20244 Comments

Dear BFUSA,

Thank you for your long-overdue public acknowledgment endorsing what the Fed Is Best Foundation has been fiercely advocating for over the past 3 years.

According to your recent blog post you now agree with us that:

1. Delayed onset of copious milk production is common.

BFUSA: “Delayed lactogenesis is actually increasingly common because the risk factors for it are potentially increasing,” Dr. Rosen-Carole says. “When a baby is born into that situation, the goal is to closely monitor what the baby is doing, instead of giving a bottle right away. “If the baby is hungry and they’re not getting enough milk out of the mother’s breast, then they need to be supplemented,” she says.

Continue reading →

Baby-Friendly: Failure and the Art of Misdirection

November 20, 2019May 7, 20241 Comment

By Alex Fischer, PhD Candidate, Brooke Orosz, PhD, Jody Segrave-Daly, RN, IBCLC, Lynnette Hafken, MA, IBCLC and Christie Del Castillo-Hegyi, M.D.

Any good magician will tell you that the secret to their trade is misdirection—making the audience look one way while doing something the other way. And even knowing this, most of us are still baffled by a magician’s tricks. So it’s no wonder that Baby-Friendly USA (BFUSA) has tried to employ that same tactic in their statement titled “Fact vs FIB: The Impact of Baby-Friendly on Breastfeeding Initiation Rates.” In this statement written by an anonymous author representing BFUSA, they attempt to dispute the findings of a recent study published in Journal of Pediatrics, “Outcomes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2018 Breastfeeding Report Card: Public Policy Implications” by Bass et al. This study examines the impact of statewide breastfeeding initiation rates as well as the impact of BFHI facilities on continued breastfeeding after hospital discharge (exclusive or combination). The Fed is Best Foundation read this study and agreed: “Baby-Friendly does not work.” These five words are the instigators of the entire statement by BFUSA and its misrepresentation of a very robust scientific study. Continue reading →

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:

any breastfeeding at 6 and 12 months
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 →

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

August 20, 2019August 31, 20233 Comments

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.

Two Physicians Describe How Their Baby-Friendly Hospital Put Their Newborn in Danger

August 16, 2019October 9, 20231 Comment

John and Kristen are both surgical residents who recently had their first child. This is their story.

By John and Kristen Waters

Let me start by saying we are one of the lucky ones. Our first-born was born at term on July 25th, 2019 at 9:43 p.m., a healthy 7 lb, and 10oz. My wife – a general surgery resident – was planning on beginning to breastfeed right after birth. My wife had undergone a bilateral breast reduction about 15 years ago, so issues with breastfeeding were on our radar. Immediately after birth, we were taken from the delivery room to the postpartum unit, where at 2 a.m. my wife and I were given a pile of paperwork and instructions on breastfeeding practices. All the while both of us were seeing double from the long day and night of laboring and delivery.

Over the course of the next 12-24 hours, our baby attempted to latch and breastfeed, continuing to have issues with falling asleep while on the breast. We spoke with a lactation consultant and multiple nurses who stated that things were going fine and that everything was normal. Over this time the rate of wet diapers continued to decrease and our baby did not have a bowel movement.

As we got into our second night of life, our child began to cry hysterically.