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Who can become a BFCI accredited service?

A Baby Friendly Community Provider is a service provider in the community whose practice protects, promotes and supports breastfeeding - enabling mothers to initiate and sustain breastfeeding of their babies.  Equally, when babies are artificially fed, their mothers are provided with unbiased information and advice.  The result is that all mothers are provided with appropriate care and support.

Any service in the community, assessed to comply with the standards in the BFCI documents, can gain accreditation.  You may be a healthcare, education and/or social service provider, or an individual health professional/worker.

The standards are based on "The Seven Point Plan", which is based on the principles of "The Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding" (BFHI).

NZBA encourages services to collaborate to achieve Baby Friendly status.  However, your service or you as an individual may choose to work towards achieving the BFCI accreditation.

Examples of applicable BFCI services include:

  • Childbirth educators
  • LMCs - midwives, GPs or obstetricians
  • Maori providers, Pacific providers, general practices, public health services, PHOs, La Leche League, Parents' Centre
  • Paediatric wards and outpatients
  • Plunket, Tamariki Ora
  • Community centres, pharmacies and early childhood providers

NZBA can support you to make the BFCI work for you!   If there is a component that has no application to your service, you would not be assessed on it.

Contact NZBA  on [email protected] for further information.