St. Luke's celebrates receiving international award

St. Luke’s held a special ceremony Wednesday to celebrate its designation as a Baby-Friendly birth facility, a prestigious international award.  

Baby-Friendly USA is the authority for implementation of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, a global program sponsored by the World Health Organization  and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The initiative encourages and recognizes hospitals and birthing centers that offer an optimal level of care for breastfeeding mothers and their babies. Based on the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, the award recognizes birth facilities  that offer breastfeeding mothers the information, confidence and skills needed to successfully initiate and continue breastfeeding their babies.

“We’ve been working towards earning this important designation for more than four years. Making it happen was really a team effort,” said Lori Swanson, St. Luke’s maternal child health nurse manager. “It’s very important to us that all moms know we do everything we can to support them when they come to St. Luke’s Birthing Center to have their babies.”

Read the full story in Business North