Mother holding newborn baby

Torrance Memorial Medical Center Receives Baby-Friendly Designation from World Health Organization/UNICEF

TORRANCE, CA, June 19, 2018 – Torrance Memorial Medical Center has been designated a Baby-Friendly Hospital by Baby-Friendly USA. In order to achieve a Baby-Friendly designation, Torrance Memorial demonstrated its ability to offer mothers the information, skills and support needed to successfully initiate bonding and breastfeeding.

"We are very excited to be Baby-Friendly designated,” Leah Romine, RNC-OB, MSN, PHN, clinical director, maternal child health services, Torrance Memorial Medical Center, said. “It's been an adventurous journey that has made our maternal child team all the more cohesive.”

Romine continued, “We are proud of the work we do to support mothers in breastfeeding and bonding. Torrance Memorial nurses are truly passionate about their profession. Providing babies with the best start in life is near and dear to our hearts.”

A maternity care facility can be designated as Baby-Friendly when it meets the requirements created by the World Health Organization and adheres to the “10 Steps of Successful Breastfeeding.” The steps include the following:

  • helping all mothers initiate breastfeeding within one hour of birth;
  • showing mothers how to breastfeed and maintain lactation even if they are separated from their infants;
  • giving newborn infants only breast milk unless medically indicated;
  • practicing rooming-in by allowing mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day;
  • and encouraging unrestricted breastfeeding on cue.

Studies continue to demonstrate that there are many benefits to breastfeeding that extend beyond the initial first days of life.

The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI), launched in 1991, is an effort by UNICEF and the World Health Organization to ensure that all maternity care facilities, whether free standing or in a hospital, become centers of breastfeeding support. Since the program began, more than 16,000 facilities worldwide in 134 countries have received the Baby-Friendly designation.