Highlights
Task:
Initiative
The baby-friendly initiative is to save and support mothers to breastfeed their child. It is one kind of initiative that helps to build up the parent-child relationship (Pramono et al., 2021). It also helps to decrease the rate of stillbirth by helping mothers to take care of themselves during pregnancy. The baby-friendly initiative teaches mothers the proper skills, process, and necessity of breastfeeding (Pramono et al., 2021).
Rationales
This baby-friendly initiative is a joint project of the WHO and UNICEF. This initiative was undertaken in 1991 to protect, promote and support breastfeeding locally in Australia (Pramono et al., 2021). Moreover, as proper guidelines were not maintained, there were many cases of still-births at micro-levels. Breastfeeding reduces health inequality, reduces harmful impacts to the environment, and decreases expenditures for preventable illnesses.
Policies
The main motto of the baby-friendly initiative is to support breastfeeding and keeping mothers and babies healthy (Pramono et al., 2021). There are several policies to that initiative, some of them are -
Awareness is the key. The more awareness about these issues can be created in the local society, the more babies and mothers will be safe and healthy.
Governments of Some countries like Australia, build up a health care committee to support baby-friendly initiatives and set up some special care units for mothers.
It is important to spread awareness about taking care of pregnant women so that the rate of stillbirth, immature birth of babies can be decreased.
BFHI (baby-friendly health initiative) provides both maternity and community facilities (Pramono et al., 2021).
Initiate mothers to communicate with the health care professionals on a regular basis.
Educate parents and locals about the importance of mother’s and baby’s health and promote breastfeeding.
Help parents to communicate with their babies and build a healthy growing family (Pramono et al., 2021).
Societal needs
Resource demands
In 2012, Australian health ministers had encouraged public and private hospitals to implement the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding given by WHO. The government policies include educating mothers and their families how breastfeeding provides early nutrition for the child and also saves the mother from many diseases (Pramono et al., 2021). In 2020, the Australian government released the National Stillbirth Action and Implementation Plan which aims at reducing stillbirths by 20 percent in the next 5 years. The right to breastfeed in public has also been passed by the government.
Issues
Infant and the mother are both benefited by breastfeeding. Infants suffer from malocclusion, sudden infant death syndrome, inter alia, higher rates of obesity, asthma, sudden infant death syndrome, diabetes, acute otitis media, and lower intelligence quotients if they are not breastfed. Similarly, mothers also suffer from type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, ovarian cancer and breast cancer. Developed countries like Australia have smaller breastfeeding duration which increases the risk of sudden deaths in infants (Pramono et al., 2021). Stillbirths that happen locally around Australia are also one of the tragic experiences that a family goes through. In Australia, there are 6 stillbirths every day and it affects more than 2000 Australian families every year. Causes of stillbirths are infection, mother's age, and health, bleeding, and premature labor. The public notion of breastfeeding as something sexual should be challenged (Brown, 2017).
Solutions- Strategy
The Burke-Litwin model facilitates the implementation of the BFHI. At a micro/ local level, multidisciplinary team involvement should be promoted (Brown, 2017). Formal organizational structures should be established and continuously monitored to evaluate the implementation of the BFHI. Mother's needs and values should also be discussed along with this initiative. Communication and interaction should be improved between the healthcare workers and the mothers. Breastfeeding banks should be established within maternity facilities (Brown, 2017). Continuous midwifery models of care should be promoted. Good quality antenatal breastfeeding education should be given which is associated with a longer duration of breastfeeding (Brown, 2017). High-quality postnatal care also ensures effective breastfeeding and also reduces cases of stillbirths. Wider public health campaigns should be undertaken to improve public perceptions of breastfeeding. Safer baby bundle(SBB) model should be practiced- where women should be prevented from smoking during pregnancy, if any mother faces fetal growth restriction there should be proper management and detection of the problem and awareness should be raised among women experiencing decreased fetal movements (Andrews et al., 2020). Partnership should be established with parent support and advocacy organizations like “Stillbirth Foundation Australia” and “Still Aware”, which ensures the voices of every parent to be heard so that there is the proper development of materials and implementation of strategies. Nationalizing and localizing stillbirth targets can be effective. Maintaining and improving health and nutrition, including folic acid intake should be considered. To prevent stillbirths girls should be protected and adolescent health should be promoted (Andrews et al., 2020).
Factors that underpin the performance of healthcare systems
Factors that are associated with lower breastfeeding locally in Australia are- lower education among the parents, negative attitude of the partner towards breastfeeding an infant, separation of baby from its mother after birth, health professionals lacking knowledge about breastfeeding (Pramono et al., 2021). The factors that are necessary for the proper performance of the healthcare systems are-
1.Safety and improvement education (Vosper et al., 2017).
2.Mothers should be supported to understand and reciprocate to their infant’s cues for breastfeeding.
3.There should be a sustainable telemedicine service.
4.The health care systems should be providing proper insurance coverages (Vosper et al., 2017).
5.Technology should be utilized for the effective implementation of any strategies within the healthcare system.
6.The government must also invest in paid and extended leaves for working mothers.
7.Advertisements promoting breast milk substitutes for babies under 6 years should not be encouraged (Vosper et al., 2017).
8.There should be proper advertising which increases awareness among the local people of Australia (Weir et al., 2019).
9.Structural improvements within the healthcare systems along with the BFHI accreditation like Human Milk banks should be established within hospitals or midwifery continuity of care should be upscaled (Esbati et al., 2019).
10.There should be no negative emotional experiences caused due to a lack of communication and interaction among the health care professionals and the mothers.
11.The Safer Baby Bundle(SBB) model should be followed to reduce the number of stillbirths that affect the local areas of Australia.
12.High-quality antenatal care should be provided to pregnant women to reduce stillbirths (Andrews et al., 2020).
Models for delivering and financing healthcare
The Beveridge Model: It is a system of health care. In the Beveridge model, the government of any nation offers health treatment through income tax payments for all of its citizens. as it is connected directly to the government, it increases the availability of healthcare treatment and helps to get the treatment at a low cost (Andrews et al., 2020).
The Bismarck Model: It is a health care system that is limited. The Bismarck model of healthcare is a system where citizens pay to a healthcare fund that pays for the medical care management. it is provided by state undertaking organizations, other Government medical organizations, or any private health organization (Andrews et al., 2020).
The national health insurance model: This health care model is provided by any private organization, but this is driven by the government where the people pay their funds. This system never claimed profit from the people. It is very affordable and effective for citizens. Though it is supported by any specific government it is an international health insurance model (Andrews et al., 2020).
Impacts
Baby-friendly health initiative helps local society as well as the nation in several positive ways such that
Characteristics of the study population: Study shows that most of the pregnant mothers between the age of 13-26 who give stillbirth, which is 53% of the population both male and female children. Other mothers who were aged between 21 and 30 years (62%) often give birth to healthy children (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018).
Helping mothers to improve breastfeeding: Breastfeeding is very important for any newborn baby. The total rate of breastfeeding for babies newborn to six months of age is now 40%. Study shows that in Australia only 65.8% babies receive breast milk (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018). Baby-friendly health initiatives help to spread awareness about this important topic.
Decrease the rate of stillbirths: Baby-friendly health initiative makes sure that every pregnant woman is taken care of. If the mother will not be healthy the rates of stillbirth will increase. So this initiative helps to spread awareness about stillbirth and help mothers. Thus, they help to decrease the stillbirth rate. As a result, in Australia, the rate of stillbirths has decreased from 3.6% in 1999 to 2.4% in 2018 (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018).
Helps the economy: Baby-friendly initiatives help local health workers financially. It gathers NGOs, investors to invest and support the project (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018). Thus, the initiative spreads all over nationally and internationally. Most of these initiative units offer affordable healthcare treatment for locals which helps the local economy (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018).
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