We're the only baby-friendly facility in Knoxville!
The Lisa Ross Birth & Women's Center was designated a Baby-Friendly facility in 1998 by the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative of WHO and UNICEF. We remain the ONLY Baby-Friendly facility in Knox County.
home
our breastfeeding resource page
The Lisa Ross Birth & Women's Center promotes and teaches its staff and colleagues the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding:
1. Have a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff.
2. Train all health care staff in skills necessary to implement this policy.
3. Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding.
4. Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within an hour of birth.
5. Show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation, even if they should be separated from their infants.
6. Give newborn infants no food or drink other than breastmilk, unless medically indicated.
7. Practice "rooming in" by allowing mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day.
8. Encourage breastfeeding on demand.
9. Give no artificial teats, pacifiers, dummies, or soothers to breastfeeding infants.
10. Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or birthing center
We have a breastfeeding rate at our Center of 94% at discharge to home, and a 70% rate at six weeks postpartum.
Launched worldwide in 1992, the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative is a joint project of WHO and UNICEF, and is sponsored by the CDC. The goal of the Initiative is to recognize hospitals and maternity centers that demonstrate their commitment to providing an optimal environment for breastfeeding mothers by fulfilling the rigorous standards outlined in the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding.
In the United States, the
Baby-Friendly
Hospital Initiative is implemented by the non-profit organization,
Baby-Friendly USA, www. . Currently 32
US
hospitals and birth centers
have received the "Baby-Friendly" designation. An additional 45 facilities
have indicated their commitment to full implementation of the Ten Steps
by participating in the Certificate of Intent program.
How does a facility become a designated baby-friendly facility?
Read the U.N.'s Innocenti Declaration on the Protection, Promotion and Support of Breastfeeding.
For a good source of
breastfeeding news and health information, go to the
UNICEF/UK Baby-friendly site...
UNICEF statement on breastfeeding and environmental contamination - statement, 7 April 2004
UNICEF statement on mother-infant bed sharing - statement 16 February 2004
UNICEF response to Lancet publication on Sudden Infant Death among bed sharing babies - statement, 16 January 2004
For information on breastfeeding, area mother's groups and other resources, please contact us!
Knowledge is the Antidote to fear.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson~
We must be the change
we wish to see
in the world.
~Mahatma Gandhi~