PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson Healthcare is the fifth hospital in the state to achieve the World Health Organization’s designation as a Baby-Friendly Hospital.
The designation April 13 creates an atmosphere that will create a healthier environment for both the babies born in the hospital and their mothers, said hospital personnel.
“It comes down to women’s health,” said Kirsten Pickard, nurse manager of the 25-bed hospital’s five-bed family birth center.
“It’s a challenge to create an environment that supports breast-feeding, but the benefits are huge.”
To mark the designation, the hospital plans to hold an open house at the Family Birth Center on May 17.
Kate Burke, hospital spokeswoman, said invitations are expected to be sent to current mothers-to-be as well as mothers who have given birth at the hospital.
The hospital is one of 158 in the United States that has received the designation, which requires training of the staff and auditing of all hospital practices, not only those in the maternity ward.
“I’m just so proud of them. It was quite an accomplishment,” said chief nurse executive Joyce Cardinal.
“It’s good for the community and for the mothers and babies in Jefferson County.”
She said Pickard and the other nurses in the birthing center “had the aggressive goal of becoming baby-friendly.
“It’s a lot of education, a lot of policies. We’re educating nurses in birthing and in the hospital elsewhere on the value of breast-feeding.”
For instance, they make sure a patient who has surgery can continue to breast-feed while she is hospitalized, Cardinal said.
“We promote breast-feeding, but we also support people who make the choice not to breast-feed,” Cardinal said.
“We know that there are mothers who make that choice.”
The Baby Friendly initiative was launched by UNICEF and the World Health Organization — or WHO — in 1991.
It recognizes hospitals around the world that implement best practices in breast-feeding support for new mothers and in allowing moms and infants to remain together in the hospital.
Breast-feeding decreases instances of ear and respiratory infections, and sudden infant death syndrome, Pickard said, and also can prevent or curtail a child’s susceptibility to diabetes and obesity.
Other than Jefferson Healthcare, the baby-friendly hospitals in Washington are the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, Tacoma General Hospital, Three Rivers Hospital in Brewster and Evergreen Hospital Medical Center in Kirkland.
Pickard said the designation will draw mothers from throughout the region to Jefferson Healthcare.
With the current facilities and staff, the hospital could accommodate twice the 110 to 120 babies born there each year, she said.
In 2012, Jefferson Healthcare became the only hospital in the United States to require all obstetric nurses to achieve recognition from the Coalition for the Improvement of Maternity Services as Mother Friendly Nurses, Burke said.
“We are the first the hospital in the country that has both baby- and mother-friendly designations,” Cardinal said.
Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
