title: The Baby-Friendly journey in a US public hospital.
abstract: In May of 2007, San Francisco General Hospital & Trauma Center became the first Baby-Friendly certified hospital in San Francisco. This quality improvement program began in 1999 and took 8 years to complete. Challenges to completing this goal included a population that has myriad social issues including non-English-speaking clients, drug abuse, poverty, and homelessness. Further complications included a constantly changing group of perinatal healthcare providers with little-to-no breast-feeding knowledge, hospital practices that did not support rooming-in and skin-to-skin contact, and lack of overall patient breast-feeding education. This article describes the process of implementing The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative quality improvement program, achieving certification and subsequent increase in breast-feeding rates. Breast-feeding initiation rates went from 81% in 2002 to 98% in 2010. Exclusivity rates did not change.
authors.affiliation: San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, 1001 Potrero Ave, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA. maya.vasquez@sfdph.org
authors.forename: Maya J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Vasquez
authors.forename: Ocean R
authors.initials: OR
authors.lastname: Berg
mesh_terms: D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006771:Hospitals, Maternity / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006779:Hospitals, Public / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009035:Mothers / Q000193:education*; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods; D018743:Perinatal Care / Q000379:methods*; D012495:San Francisco; D012944:Social Support