Cape Coral Hospital Receives Prestigious Award
Our journey to Baby Friendly designation was a long one. We started on the journey alone. We did many things over the years starting with the unit design even before I joined them as the director. Our unit was designed as a LDRP that opened in 1987. The unit had Rooming In for mothers right from the opening day. There was no newborn nursery. We did other things along the way like Ban the Bags https://www.facebook.com/BanTheBags/ We got rid of pacifiers. We worked with the Florida Breastfeeding Coalition http://www.flbreastfeeding.org/hospital-award/ and were the first hospital in the State to receive the 1 star, 2 star, 3 star and 4 star. We studied the Baby Steps to Baby Friendly.
We applied for the Best Fed Beginnings program in 2011 and we were turned down. https://www.nichq.org/project/best-fed-beginnings When we were turned down, we decided to start educating our staff ourselves. Nursing staff took one of the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and prepared a lecture to give to their co-workers. We started doing Gentle Cesareans and offering the same skin-to-skin care for cesarean birth moms that our vaginal birth moms had. We even were the first hospital in the United States to put triplets skin-to-skin during their cesarean birth and all three babies nursed on the OR table.
We learned about the Certified Breastfeeding Counselor program through Prepared Childbirth Educators and we were able to convince hospital administration that this would be a great thing to have all of our maternity nurses certified through this program. https://www.childbirtheducation.org/breastfeeding-counselor-certification-examination/
When we heard about the EMPower Breastfeeding program we decided to apply for this program and see if we could get accepted. We did! Then the other two maternity hospitals in our System also applied. We were so fortunate to be chosen for the EMPower Breastfeeding program for all 3 of our maternity hospital in our System. http://empowerbreastfeeding.org/training/about-us/ Every part of EMPower was a gift to our team. We are given the tools and guidance for every part of our journey from webinars, to site visits to personal phone calls from our coach and data quality analyst, to support when I wanted to throw in the towel and give up.
During EMPower we were approached by the Lee County Health Department and offered a grant to further assist us on our journey. This helped with the development of a collaborative relationship as we made our way through the 4-D Pathway. http://www.healthiestweightflorida.com/activities/baby-steps.html Our county was also a recipient of a NACHO grant http://breastfeeding.naccho.org to reduce disparities in breastfeeding. Through this grant we were able to work together and have several WIC peer counselors and Lee Health employees trained and certified as Lactation Specialists to assist us with the support of women in our community. Our collaboration with the Lee County Health Department also led to the formation of the Lee County Breastfeeding Coalition which is a part of Healthy Lee. http://healthylee.com
The end of January 2018 two of the three Lee Health maternity hospitals had their Baby-Friendly designation site visits. At the opening session the Lee County Health Department was at the table with us. It was a great moment when Kevin Kirkwood, Health Promotion Program Administrator at the Health Department said what an honor it was to be a part of a generational change for our community to normalize breastfeeding.
Last Monday, my hospital was named #493 in the United States as a Baby-Friendly Designated Hospital. A long journey that was entirely a labor of love by a group that is dedicated to doing the very best for mothers and babies! TEAM WORK! Every single person did their part!
Albany, NY - Baby-Friendly USA, announces that Cape Coral Hospital has received prestigious international recognition as a Designated Baby-Friendly birth facility.
We applied for the Best Fed Beginnings program in 2011 and we were turned down. https://www.nichq.org/project/best-fed-beginnings When we were turned down, we decided to start educating our staff ourselves. Nursing staff took one of the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and prepared a lecture to give to their co-workers. We started doing Gentle Cesareans and offering the same skin-to-skin care for cesarean birth moms that our vaginal birth moms had. We even were the first hospital in the United States to put triplets skin-to-skin during their cesarean birth and all three babies nursed on the OR table.
We learned about the Certified Breastfeeding Counselor program through Prepared Childbirth Educators and we were able to convince hospital administration that this would be a great thing to have all of our maternity nurses certified through this program. https://www.childbirtheducation.org/breastfeeding-counselor-certification-examination/
When we heard about the EMPower Breastfeeding program we decided to apply for this program and see if we could get accepted. We did! Then the other two maternity hospitals in our System also applied. We were so fortunate to be chosen for the EMPower Breastfeeding program for all 3 of our maternity hospital in our System. http://empowerbreastfeeding.org/training/about-us/ Every part of EMPower was a gift to our team. We are given the tools and guidance for every part of our journey from webinars, to site visits to personal phone calls from our coach and data quality analyst, to support when I wanted to throw in the towel and give up.
During EMPower we were approached by the Lee County Health Department and offered a grant to further assist us on our journey. This helped with the development of a collaborative relationship as we made our way through the 4-D Pathway. http://www.healthiestweightflorida.com/activities/baby-steps.html Our county was also a recipient of a NACHO grant http://breastfeeding.naccho.org to reduce disparities in breastfeeding. Through this grant we were able to work together and have several WIC peer counselors and Lee Health employees trained and certified as Lactation Specialists to assist us with the support of women in our community. Our collaboration with the Lee County Health Department also led to the formation of the Lee County Breastfeeding Coalition which is a part of Healthy Lee. http://healthylee.com
The end of January 2018 two of the three Lee Health maternity hospitals had their Baby-Friendly designation site visits. At the opening session the Lee County Health Department was at the table with us. It was a great moment when Kevin Kirkwood, Health Promotion Program Administrator at the Health Department said what an honor it was to be a part of a generational change for our community to normalize breastfeeding.
Last Monday, my hospital was named #493 in the United States as a Baby-Friendly Designated Hospital. A long journey that was entirely a labor of love by a group that is dedicated to doing the very best for mothers and babies! TEAM WORK! Every single person did their part!
Albany, NY - Baby-Friendly USA, announces that Cape Coral Hospital has received prestigious international recognition as a Designated Baby-Friendly birth facility.
Baby-Friendly USA, Inc is the U.S. authority for the implementation of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (“BFHI”), a global program sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The initiative encourages and recognizes hospitals and birthing centers that offer an optimal level of care for breastfeeding mothers and their babies. Based on the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, this prestigious international award recognizes birth facilities that offer breastfeeding mothers the information, confidence, and skills needed to successfully initiate and continue breastfeeding their babies.
There are more than 20,000 designated Baby-Friendly hospitals and birth centers worldwide. Currently there are 493 active Baby-Friendly hospitals and birth centers in the United States. Cape Coral Hospital joins the 16 active Baby-Friendly hospitals in the State of Florida. The “Baby-Friendly” re-designation is given after a rigorous on-site survey is completed. The award is maintained by continuing to practice the Ten Steps as demonstrated by quality processes.
