The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) was launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in 1991 to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding through evidence-informed maternity and newborn care. The initiative is based on the WHO/UNICEF Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and subsequent World Health Assembly (WHA) Resolutions.
Canada expanded the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative into the Baby-Friendly Initiative (BFI) to reflect the continuum of care from hospital to home by including hospitals/birthing centres and community health services such as public health units, community health centres and family health teams. The BFI helps create a seamless system of care that improves health outcomes for babies, parents, and families.
The BFHI was most recently updated by WHO-UNICEF in 2018 and is based on current research and the experiences of many countries. The Breastfeeding Committee for Canada (BCC) updated the Canadian BFI standards and process to reflect the WHO-UNICEF update.
The BFI is recognized as an international standard for excellence in maternal and newborn care. It supports informed decision-making, protects families from the commercial influence of marketing of non-human milk, and promotes equitable, family-centred care for all families, regardless of how they decide to feed their infant. In Canada the BFI helps create a seamless system of support that enables families to meet their infant feeding goals while fostering optimal health outcomes.
Organizations that implement the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding in Canada and achieve and maintain BFI designation demonstrate their commitment to providing evidence-informed, family-centred care that protects, promotes, and supports breastfeeding and informed decision-making around the use of infant formula. The BFI helps to ensure that all families receive the support they need to meet their infant feeding goals.
BFI Ontario supports hospitals, birthing centres and community health services across Ontario on their journey toward BFI designation by providing guidance, resources, and networking opportunities to help implement and sustain BFI best practices.
An overview of the BFI is provided in this video:
