World Breastfeeding Week 2025 Blog 1: The Importance of Accreditation

To mark World Breastfeeding Week 2025, Debra Hennessy IBCLC at Family Nursing and Home Care (FNHC), and Deborah McCoy Certified Breastfeeding Specialist Midwife at Health Care Jersey (HCJ), have collaborated on a series of Blogs to celebrate the week.

Blog 1 – The Importance of Accreditation

Over the last three years ‘Jersey Breastfeeds’ has been the focus of Jersey’s celebration of World Breastfeeding Week. The theme for 2025 is Prioritize Breastfeeding: Create Sustainable Support Systems.

The week brings together parents, the business community, professionals from Baby Steps, and Health Visiting Team (FNHC) community and hospital-based midwives Public Health Jersey and representatives from States Assembly.

Together our aim is to improve the health of islanders, provide education and support for breastfeeding parents, ensure that all families receive the best evidenced based information, whatever their feeding choice, and feel supported to breastfeed within the community.

The UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) underpins this important work. Using this framework for Jersey’s breastfeeding education and support programme ensures parents receive the latest evidenced based information and support and enables professionals to provide sensitive and effective care so that mothers can make an informed choice about feeding, get breastfeeding off to a good start and overcome challenges.

Baby Friendly also works to support all families to develop close and loving relationships with their newborn and to understand the importance of this for their baby’s development.

BFI is a global programme which aims to transform healthcare for babies, their mothers and families as part of a wider global partnership between UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO).  The award is given to health care organisations after an assessment by a UNICEF UK team has shown that recognised best practice standards are in place.

Family Nursing and Home Care (FNHC) is proud to announce that they have been awarded the prestigious Baby Friendly award, a nationally recognised mark of quality care

FNHC is a Jersey charity, our ethos is to help islanders start well, live well and age well. Through Baby Steps, our perinatal education programme, we help prepare people for becoming parents, looking at all the joys and challenges that entails from building stronger relationships to learning important parenting skills.

Our Health Visiting Team, including specialist community public health nurses, staff nurses, healthcare practitioners and nursery nurses contact parents in the antenatal period and take over care from the community midwife providing health care to children from 0-5 year. They provide a dedicated duty helpline to address any concerns or questions, home visits at key stages, offer baby clinics, developmental checks and feeding support.

Breastfeeding Buddies is a specialist clinic run by an IBCLC Health Visitor and Breastfeeding Champion three times a week and places can be booked through the Duty helpline on 01534 497640.

In February 2025 Health Care Jersey Maternity Service was awarded Stage 2 BFI accreditation which recognised excellence in standards related to education and training of staff. The service is now working towards Stage 3, focusing on parental experience antenatally, during the hospital stay and after discharge to the community midwifery team.

The Maternity Service provide antenatal support to women who may need additional help due to pre-existing medical conditions which is run by a Certified Breastfeeding Specialist Midwife. In addition, a postnatal clinic for feeding support is available weekly.

If you are pregnant and would like to know more about breastfeeding, contact your community midwife on 01534 449139 / 449190