This year’s theme for World Breastfeeding Week, “Breastfeeding: Just Ten Steps, The Baby Friendly Way!,” is so appropriate for Texas Health Resources. In August 2008, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Allen became the first Baby Friendly Hospital in Texas, quickly followed by Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford and Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Stephenville. And in 2010 Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth and Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital achieved the designation. And actually Texas Health hospitals are the only ones in Texas and less than 100 hospitals in the United States to achieve the Baby-Friendly Hospital designation from the World Health Organization. Other Texas Health hospitals are currently working on the designation too.
Texas Health Resources made a commitment to the community to provide an environment within the organization that supports families and breastfeeding in the best way possible following the “Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding.”
But there are myths and misunderstandings about what this means for families giving birth at Texas Health hospitals. Our facilities ensure that all staff caring for mothers and babies have the skills necessary to support the parents in their feeding decisions.
• After the birth, babies are held skin to skin with their mother. This helps provide the most nurturing experience for both. Babies held skin to skin: cry less, regulate heart rate, respiratory rate, body temperature and glucose levels more efficiently.
• By providing rooming-in, our hospitals allow parents to quickly become the experts in the care of their baby. Mothers are tuning into their baby’s needs, and families are encouraged to take an active part in the nurturing of not only the newborn, but also the new mother.
• For families choosing to breastfeed, our care model provides the most supportive environment, encouraging cue-based exclusive breastfeeding.
At Texas Health HEB we’ve seen great improvements for our patients after implementing those seemingly simple steps. Our readmission rate for babies with jaundice has decreased by about 60 percent meaning babies are healthy and at home with their parents rather than facing stays in our neonatal intensive care unit for follow-up care. And our rate of exclusive breastfeeding success by moms choosing to breastfeed has increased to 65- to 70-percent from 10 percent before implementing these steps. This means that moms are going home comfortable with the breastfeeding process, which helps to eliminate some stresses of the having a newborn.
Our commitment is to improve the health the people in the communities we serve. Research is very clear on the health benefits of breastfeeding for both mother and baby. For mothers choosing breastfeeding, they will not find a more supportive environment than a Texas Health hospital.
As a mother and grandmother myself along with being a nurse and lactation consultant, I know firsthand that parenting is not just about how we feed our babies. It’s also how we care for and love them in many other ways. This is our primary reason for providing “Baby Friendly” care.
Laura Burnett, RN, BSN
International Board Certified Lactation Consultant
Nursing Supervisor, Women's Services
Texas Health HEB
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