Oct 12. Site Visit

Report on site visit to Baby Friendly Hospital in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico by SWABA members Libby Berkeley, Maria Modh and Maribel Ramirez, 10-12-06, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

The meeting was arranged by Maria Modh.

We were met by Nurse Maria de Jesus Arzavala, the Coordinator of Teaching for IMSS Hospital #6, and Dr. Armando Campos, the Coordinator of Teaching for physicians. IMSS is a hospital run by the state of Chihuahua for all employed persons in Ciudad Juarez. Fees charged to patients are minimal.

This hospital delivers approximately 300 babies per month. This hospital was certified as “Baby Friendly” by UNICEF first in 1998 and recertified in 2002. This hospital does not provide bottles or pacifiers to families at all. In the occasion that a baby must be supplemented, they cup feed the baby the supplement. We saw mothers with their babies in the NICU, Labor and Delivery, Pediatrics and normal delivery units. We saw women breastfeeding in all areas. We saw and spoke with multiple post-c/section mothers successfully latching their babies. We did see one bottle with a nipple in the crib of a 1 month old baby who had been readmitted for weight loss. The mother told us she had brought it into the hospital.

There is breastfeeding depicted in art work, some original, in all areas of the hospital where we visited. We did not see any promotion of formula feeding nor any advertisements of any kind provided by any formula company. (As a matter of fact, the only company name I noticed on anything was Johnson and Johnson and it was on a breastfeeding poster.)

We visited the discharge room and the breastfeeding educator showed us her educational materials. All women receive a breastfeeding class before they are discharged and the educator uses a home-made flip chart with very accurate, instructive and up-to-date information. They have their own hand-made breast models with fabric, stuffing and use nylon stockings for nipples. Their policy is to have every mother demonstrate breastfeeding with her own baby before discharge. One of the educators told me that one of the concerns she hears frequently from women is what will they do when they have to return to work.

We were struck by the lack of resources in the hospital. Mothers coming to and from the shower room had no slippers, there are repairs that need to be made to the walls and floors, we did not see any pillows on the beds, babies did not have caps on, soap provided for washing up was of the old bar-style, and women were three to a room with curtains separating the beds. The NICU did not appear to have air-conditioning, there were fans blowing. Regardless of these issues, however, all of the babies and mothers appeared to be well taken care of and very clean, bedding was spotless, staff was exceedingly polite and eager to show us their facilities.


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