Baby-Friendly Facility

While we have always been “baby friendly,” Adventist Health Lodi Memorial has also received the prestigious Baby-Friendly designation by Baby-Friendly USA in 2014, and then re-designated in 2019. This prestigious designation means that Lodi Memorial offers an optimal level of care for infant feeding and mother/baby bonding.

Through the collaboration of our physicians, nurses and our entire healthcare team, we are now recognized as a facility that offers mothers the information, confidence and skills needed to successfully initiate and continue breastfeeding their babies. We have also answered the surgeon general’s call to action by bringing ourselves in to alignment with the work of the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity, Healthy People 2020 goals.

The Baby- Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the early 1990’s in an effort to increase breastfeeding rate and, in turn, reduce childhood illness and death. BFHI includes practices proven to promote, protect and support breastfeeding.

The decision to pursue the Baby-Friendly designation was made possible thanks to the San Joaquin County Breastfeeding Health Initiative.

The medical center staff worked for eight years to thoroughly implement Baby-Friendly policies. Baby-Friendly designation is granted after a rigorous on-site survey is completed.

To achieve and maintain the award, a hospital must:

• Have a written breastfeeding policy routinely communicated to all healthcare staff.

• Train all healthcare staff in skills necessary to implement this policy.

• Inform all pregnant women of the benefits and management of breastfeeding.

• Help mothers initiate breastfeeding with one hour of birth.

• Show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation, even if separated from their infants

• Give infants no food or drink other than breast milk, unless medically indicated.

• Practice “rooming in” – allowing mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day.

• Encourage breastfeeding on demand.

• Give no pacifiers or artificial nipples to breastfeeding infants.

• Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the medical center of clinic.

As with most great efforts, it has taken a village to help make this a reality.

For questions about our maternity services and tours call (209) 339-7875.