title: Are you Baby-Friendly? Knowledge deficit among US maternity staff.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative began in 1991. In 2010, approximately 3% of United States (US) hospitals were Baby-Friendly certified. When collecting data for related studies, we noted that many maternity staff erroneously claimed their hospital was Baby-Friendly.™
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether maternity staff in US hospitals could accurately describe their institution's status with regard to Baby-Friendly certification.
  
  
  METHODS
  In 2010-2011, we called all maternity hospitals in the US and asked to be connected to the maternity service. We then asked the person answering the maternity service phone: "Is your hospital a Baby-Friendly hospital?" and recorded the position of the respondent.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We called 2974 hospitals, and received answers on Baby-Friendly status from 2851. According to the Baby-Friendly USA Website (http://www.babyfriendlyusa.org), 3% (75/2851) of these hospitals were Baby-Friendly. However, staff at 62% (1780/2851) stated their hospital was Baby-Friendly. Staff at 15% (424/2851) did not know what the caller meant by "Baby-Friendly hospital." Accuracy of knowledge varied dependent on the respondent's job title (P < .001). International Board Certified Lactation Consultants were most likely to be accurate, with 89% answering correctly. There was a strong positive correlation between the proportion of Baby-Friendly hospitals and the proportion of correct responses by state (r = 0.62, P < .001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative was established over 20 years ago, most US maternity staff responding to a telephone survey either incorrectly believed their hospital to be Baby-Friendly certified or were unaware of the meaning of "Baby-Friendly hospital."
authors.affiliation: Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Radha
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sadacharan
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Santana
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sanchez
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Matlak
authors.forename: Xena
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Grossman
authors.forename: Gregory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Makrigiorgos
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Merewood
mesh_terms: D001942:Breast Feeding; D002568:Certification; D003696:Delivery Rooms / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007224:Infant Care / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D016134:Organizational Policy; D010564:Personnel, Hospital; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011247:Pregnancy; D014480:United Nations; D014481:United States; D014944:World Health Organization