Holyoke Medical Center Celebrates Baby-friendly Designation

HOLYOKE — Holyoke Medical Center (HMC) has been named a baby-friendly birth facility as part of the Baby-Friendly Hospitals Initiative. HMC is the first, and currently only, hospital in the Pioneer Valley to receive this recognition.

On Friday, Feb. 12 at 2:30 p.m. in the hospital’s main lobby, HMC will recognize the staff who worked to achieve this designation through required training and skill building to assure quality in all aspects of maternity-care operations.

The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) is a global program that was launched by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund in 1991 to encourage and recognize hospitals and birthing centers that offer an optimal level of care for infant feeding and mother/baby bonding. The BFHI assists hospitals in giving mothers the information, confidence, and skills necessary to successfully initiate and continue breastfeeding their babies or feeding formula safely, and gives special recognition to hospitals that have done so.

Becoming a baby-friendly facility is a comprehensive journey toward providing evidence-based, maternity care with the goal of achieving optimal infant feeding outcomes and mother/baby bonding.