Maternity Centers Earn Recertification in Statewide Breastfeeding Initiative

All of Premier Health’s maternity facilities – Atrium Medical Center, Miami Valley Hospital, Miami Valley Hospital South and Upper Valley Medical Center – have achieved re-certification through Ohio First Steps for Healthy Babies, a voluntary statewide breastfeeding initiative launched by the Ohio Department of Health and Ohio Hospital Association to reduce the state’s high infant mortality rate.

In 2017, Premier Health became the first health care system in Ohio whose maternity centers implemented all Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, as defined by the World Health Organization and Baby-Friendly USA, to promote, protect, and support breastfeeding. Each facility’s five-star certification (one star awarded for every two steps achieved) is good for three years. 

The 10 steps promoted by the initiative include informing all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding, showing mothers how to breastfeed, and allowing mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day. 

About 61 percent of mothers exclusively breastfed their infants in the days following delivery at Premier Health hospitals in 2016, significantly above the state average rate of 52 percent at hospital discharge.

Back to the May 2019 issue of Premier Pulse