The General Hospital of Valencia has been noticia these past days for having obtained the certificate of the first of the four phases of the accreditation of Humanization of Assistance at Birth and LactationIHAN).
This accreditation was created by the WHO and UNICEF in 1991 from the experiences at the University Hospital of San Diego, in California. Its objective is the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding in health centers.
It is awarded to hospitals, maternity wards and health centers that meet a series of requirements. In the case of hospitals, one of these requirements is to have more than 75% breastfeeding at discharge. They should also promote the frequency and duration of breastfeeding by following the steps for successful breastfeeding.
The steps to be followed by hospitals and maternity wards are:
- Have a written regulations breastfeeding that is routinely made known to all staff.
- To train to all staff so that they can put the regulations into practice.
- Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding.
- Help mothers to start breastfeeding within half an hour after delivery. This Step is now interpreted as: Place babies in skin-to-skin contact with their mothers immediately after delivery, for at least an hour, and encourage mothers to recognize when their babies are ready to breastfeed, offering their help if necessary.
- Show mothers how to breastfeed and how to keep breastfeeding even if they have to be separated from their children.
- Do not give newborns any other food or drink other than breast milk, unless medically indicated.
- Practice the joint accommodation: allow mothers and newborns to stay together 24 hours a day.
- Encourage mothers to breastfeed on demand.
- Do not give breast-fed children bottles, nipples or pacifiers.
- Encourage the establishment of Support groups breastfeeding and ensure that mothers contact them after leaving the hospital (and offer the mother the breastfeeding support resources that exist in her area).
The health centers should follow the following steps:
- Have a written regulations relative to breastfeeding known to all the staff of the center.
- To train to all staff to carry out that policy.
- Inform to pregnant women and their families about breastfeeding and how to carry it out.
- To help to mothers at beginning of lactation and make sure they are cared for in the first 72 hours after discharge hospitable.
- Offer support to the breastfeeding mother to maintain exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months, and to continue it along with complementary feeding thereafter.
- Provide a receptive and welcoming atmosphere mothers and families of infants.
- Encourage the collaboration between health professionals and Community through local breastfeeding workshops and support groups.
Obtaining the IHAN accreditation is a complex process that involves all the personnel of the health center. It involves a great effort for which the competent health authority must make all its support effective.
To facilitate the work, IHAN proposes a system of accreditation by phases. Thus, for example, the General Hospital of Valencia complies with the first phase called 1 D, discovery phase. This means that this hospital has created a lactation commission, has carried out a self-evaluation of their practices and has completed the application for the first phase certificate.
Currently, there are more than 15000 hospitals with IHAN accreditation worldwide. In Spain there are a total of 98 hospitals y 128 health centers in different phases of accreditation. On the website of the Initiative for the Humanization of Care at Birth and Lactation we can consult the registration of these health centers accredited.