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The Launceston General Hospital has been continuously Baby Friendly Health Initiative (BFHI)-accredited since 2006, with this year the sixth successful assessment.
BFHI accreditation gives families confidence that the service follows best practices and meets international standard for care in regard to infant feeding.
It also acknowledges that staff receive ongoing and evidence-based education and that all policies and protocols are up to date.
The LGH has three Clinical Nurse Consultant lactation consultants - Dianne Haworth, Beth Cudmore and Lucy Sutherland.
BFHI means the whole hospital is supportive of breastfeeding and provides antenatal classes and one on one conversations if required. It encourages babies to be skin to skin with their mother straight after birth and for as long as possible, at least until the first feed, which is important for all parents regardless of feeding choice.
BFHI also means that mothers and babies stay together while in hospital, getting to know each other and feed whenever baby wants and have ongoing support to establish feeding and receive or know where to get help once they go home.
The LGH has a Baby Care Room for staff and visitors to use if they need to feed or express, and staff are able to take a break to maintain their milk supply for their baby once they return to work.