Home

  • Home
    • » e-Newsletters

Say 'no' to freebies

Healthcare Strategist Trend Watch, February 9, 2007

Three North Carolina hospitals may be putting an end to the freebie bags given to new mothers as they take their newborns home, according to The News-Observer of Raleigh, NC.

Two University of North Carolina hospitals in Chapel Hill and WakeMed Hospital in Raleigh hope to be the first in the state to be certified as "baby-friendly" according to guidelines from the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, created by UNICEF and the World Health Organization in 1991. The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative encourages hospitals to be centers of support for breastfeeding. Not accepting formula samples is one of the 10 steps for baby-friendly certification.

Hospital lactation experts say the guidelines aren't about forcing women to breastfeed, but instead, making it less convenient to do otherwise.

Twenty-five hospitals in the United States have achieved Baby-Friendly certification status, according to UNICEF's Web site.

Most Popular