After ten years of work, the Pointe-Saint-Charles Community Clinic just received its “baby-friendly” certification! This programme is the main strategy to protect, promote and support breast-feeding in Quebec’s healthcare system as well as globally. Initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, the programme addresses quality of care in health facilities providing perinatal services.
The Clinic received its certification after successfully passing an external exam approved by an accredited committee. The areas assessed include staff training, quality of instruction for parents, regulation of advertising of commercial baby formula, and how care for mothers and new-borns is organized. It is a kind of quality assurance for mothers and their new-borns.
The programme contributes to:
- excellence of care for mothers and babies, within a family approach;
- quality assurance guided by international norms;
- and, in the long-term, improvement of children’s health and psychomotor development and of mothers’ health.