The Neonatal unit at Queen’s Hospital has been awarded UNICEF’s prestigious Baby Friendly accreditation.

The Baby Friendly Initiative  looks at how we support parents to develop close and loving relationships with their newborns, to help give all babies the best possible start in life.

Just 39 out of more than 200 neonatal units across the UK have achieved full accreditation.

The initiative supports breastfeeding and breastmilk provision thanks to the health benefits, including protecting babies from respiratory and gastrointestinal infections and reducing long term chronic conditions like asthma, obesity and type 1 diabetes.

And mothers who breastfeed have a reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancers, hypertension and type 2 diabetes.

In the final stage before awarding accreditation, UNICEF assessors interviewed a large number of parents who provided feedback on their experience at our hospital.

Staff were given the certificate for the full accreditation at a presentation ceremony held on Tuesday 8 October.

Neonatal lead Dr Ambalika Das said:

We are really proud of our team in achieving this full accreditation. It means that if you are a parent, you will be supported to make sure your baby has the best start in life.

Our Chief Executive Matthew Trainer added:

Our Neonatal team has shown they put parents and babies first and should all be really proud of this achievement.

Our Neonatal unit was previously awarded stage 1 accreditation from the initiative back in 2016, which focuses on the policies we have in place at our Trust.

It was then given stage 2 accreditation in 2021, which is based on how staff follow these policies.