Penticton, B.C., is officially a baby-friendly zone.
The healthcare teams at Penticton Regional Hospital and Penticton Heath Centre received international recognition for their care and support of new parents and their babies.
Both facilities have been awarded the national and global designation for the Baby-Friendly Initiative, a World Health Organization and UNICEF program that guides optimal care and best breastfeeding and chestfeeding practices.
“The goal of the BFI is to make breastfeeding and chestfeeding easier for families by helping them get off to the best start possible, and supporting them for as long as they need,” Meggie Ross, Penticton’s BFI lead said.
“With BFI’s 10 steps to successful breastfeeding policies in place at our facilities, we know the family’s experience improves, and breastfeeding rates increase.”
In 2019, PRH was chosen among 26 sites in Canada to pilot a national BFI quality improvement project, guided by the Breastfeeding Committee for Canada with funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Since the PHC is a close partner in care, a community-based collaborative model was used, allowing the two facilities to work on the project together. This work was also supported by the Systems Change Project, with funding from the Vancouver Foundation.
Four years later, PRH and PHC join only three other facilities in the province and 28 across Canada with the official designation.
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