Saint Luke’s North Hospital Achieves Baby-Friendly Designation

Saint Luke’s North Hospital is proud to be designated a “Baby-Friendly” Hospital by Baby-Friendly USA, Incorporated. Launched as a global program in 1991 by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) encourages the broad-scale implementation of the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.

Saint Luke’s North Hospital is one of only a handful of hospitals in Missouri to achieve this designation. 

The BFHI assists hospitals by giving mothers the information, confidence, and skills necessary to initiate and continue breastfeeding their babies successfully. Achieving the Baby-Friendly designation takes years of work, transforming policies, culture, and workflow to ensure that mothers and babies receive the highest standards of infant feeding care in the first days of the child’s life.

The rigorous process of receiving this designation includes discovery, development, dissemination, and designation. To achieve the Baby-Friendly title, a facility must complete all the requirements in each of the four phases of the process and, ultimately, demonstrate that they have attained the gold standard of maternity practices that support optimal infant nutrition.

“We are incredibly proud of the hard and important work our staff has put in to receive this designation,” said Amy Brummer, Chief Nursing Officer at Saint Luke’s North Hospital. “It is an ongoing process to show our dedication to breastfeeding education for our mothers and babies born at Saint Luke’s North.”

Baby-Friendly USA, Inc. (BFUSA) is the accrediting body and national authority for the BFHI in the United States.

Learn about Saint Luke's North Hospital and our maternity services.