Standards of Care for the Non-Breastfeeding Mother and her Baby
All personnel within a Baby Friendly Community Initiative (BFCI) service must ensure their knowledge about artificial feeding is current. This is to ensure that all mothers are provided with clear, accurate and impartial information so that they can make an informed decision on how to feed their babies.
All services must have a written artificial feeding policy for the feeding of a breastmilk substitute. This policy is routinely communicated to all providers who have contact with pregnant women, and/or mothers and babies.
This policy must include:
- Information for health workers and family/whanau regarding risks associated with the use of infant formula
- The risks of formula feeding
- The benefits of skin-to-skin contact
- Safe preparation of infant formula
- Safe handling and feeding of formula and sterilisation of equipment
- Cue-based feeding with guidelines for appropriate intake
- Rooming-in 24 hours a day and safe sleeping
- Referral to parenting and/or well child services
- A minimum 3 yearly review date which is clearly visible
This policy must be self-audited annually.
The policy must be reviewed by the New Zealand Breastfeeding Alliance (NZBA) once every three years.
The policy addresses the main points of the WHO International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and all subsequent relevant World Health Assembly (WHA) resolutions.