The borough has been officially named again as a UNICEF Baby Friendly borough for its breastfeeding support – getting the highest award of gold once again.
And to celebrate this across the maternity, health visiting and children centres and Family Hub services, as special event was held for mums, babies and friends at Family Hub Livesey.
It featured proud speakers from East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, Blackburn with Darwen Public Health, Family Hubs and breastfeeding support workers, who all work hard to keep BwD baby friendly.
The event also displayed beautiful and original artwork from British artist Leanne Pearce, showing local mums with their babies, to mark the occasion.
Feedback from the UNICEF assessor – who made sure that mums in BwD are given the correct information and support to breastfeed – said that we were ‘a true embodiment of Gold’.
Donna Butler, Baby Friendly Lead Midwife at ELHT, said: “Here in BwD we support the motto – any breastfeeds matter. It is about ensuring mothers receive the correct support with breastfeeding and safe and responsive formula feeding, and it is about the best start in life for our babies here in BwD – and for the future.”
And Cath Taylor, consultant in Public Health and Baby Friendly Guardian for BwD, added: “It’s one thing to achieve GOLD status which the service did 5 years ago, but another thing to retain that for the next 5 years. This shows real commitment to sustaining this work in the long term and it shows how it has benefited so many of our local mums and families.”
Find out more about BwD as a Baby Friendly Borough, and details of breastfeeding support