NZBA had the honour of administering the Baby Friendly Community Initiative (BFCI) in Aotearoa New Zealand. As of 2016, the BFCI programme has been on hold.

A wide range of community services took part in the BFCI programme, including Māori health providers, well child providers, primary care and LMCs.

BFCI is acknowledged as a key action in Outcome 2 of Ratuaki Whakamaua Whāngote│National Breastfeeding Strategy.

The Baby-Friendly Community Initiative (BFCI) was developed to support breastfeeding services in the community following discharge from a maternity facility. It aligns with the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) and extends breastfeeding support beyond maternity services into the wider community.

The initiative encourages mothers to continue breastfeeding by providing families and communities with evidence-based information, resources, and support. Its goal is to create environments where breastfeeding is protected, promoted, and supported over the longer term.

The Story of BFCI in Aotearoa New Zealand

Families and communities play a vital role in supporting infant and young child feeding. Evidence shows that mother-to-mother support groups, peer counsellors, and community-based workers can be highly effective in helping mothers initiate exclusive breastfeeding and continue breastfeeding for up to two years and beyond.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, approximately 79% of babies are exclusively breastfed when discharged from Baby-Friendly accredited hospitals. However, this figure decreases to 52% by three months after birth (WCTO Quality Improvement Framework, September 2025).

Just as BFHI has helped create supportive breastfeeding practices within maternity services, BFCI plays an important role in fostering breastfeeding-friendly services throughout the community.

The BFCI aims to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding for healthy mothers and babies through the implementation of best-practice standards of care based on current scientific evidence and established guidelines. The initiative has a particular focus on:

• Providing community support to help mothers initiate breastfeeding and improve exclusive breastfeeding rates.
• Supporting mothers to continue breastfeeding for longer while introducing complementary foods at the appropriate time.

The vision of BFCI Aotearoa New Zealand is to restore breastfeeding as the cultural norm. Community services participating in the initiative are measured and monitored to ensure they provide a high standard of care for women and whānau during pregnancy, birth, the postnatal period, and throughout infancy and early childhood.

Staff working in Baby-Friendly accredited services are required to adopt best-practice standards for infant and young child feeding that protect, promote, and support breastfeeding. Services must provide pregnant women and mothers with accurate, evidence-based information and support. Equally, mothers who choose not to breastfeed must be respected, supported in their decision, and provided with unbiased information and guidance.

"NZBA wants a consistent standard of breastfeeding knowledge and skills to be available for women and their families in the wider community, so that they will be encouraged to initiate and continue breastfeeding and view it as the best food source for their infants."

— Jane Cartwright, Former Executive Officer, NZBA