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LOS ANGELES, June 28, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Good Samaritan Hospital received the Baby-Friendly® designation by Baby-Friendly USA for its implementation of the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and meeting the requirement of purchasing breast milk substitutes.

The Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding were developed by a team of global experts and consists of evidence-based practices that have been shown to increase breastfeeding initiation and duration. Baby-Friendly hospitals and birthing facilities must adhere to the Ten Steps to receive, and retain, a Baby-Friendly designation.

The Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding are:

1. Have a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff.
2. Train all health care staff in the skills necessary to implement this policy.
3. Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding.
4. Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within one hour of birth.
5. Show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation, even if they are separated from their infants.
6. Give infants no food or drink other than breast-milk, unless medically indicated.
7. Practice rooming in - allow mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day.
8. Encourage breastfeeding on demand.
9. Give no pacifiers or artificial nipples to breastfeeding infants.
10. Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or birth center.

Baby-Friendly USA, Inc is the U.S. authority for the implementation of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI), a global program sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The initiative encourages and recognizes hospitals and birthing centers that offer an optimal level of care for breastfeeding mothers and their babies. Based on the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, this prestigious international award recognizes birth facilities such as Good Samaritan Hospital that offer breastfeeding mothers the information, confidence, and skills needed to successfully initiate and continue breastfeeding their babies.

There are more than 20,000 designated Baby-Friendly hospitals and birth centers worldwide and Good Samaritan Hospital is one of only 355 active Baby-Friendly hospitals and birth centers in the United States. The "Baby-Friendly" designation is given after a rigorous on-site survey is completed.

About Good Samaritan Hospital
First opened in 1885, Good Samaritan Hospital is a 408-bed tertiary care facility offering some of the most comprehensive care in Los Angeles.  Specializing in cardiac, orthopaedic, oncologic, ophthalmologic, and women's services, Good Samaritan Hospital offers various medical and surgical programs in its six centers of excellence: Heart & Vascular Center, Comprehensive Orthopaedic Center, Davajan-Cabal Center for Perinatal Medicine, Pancreatico-Biliary, Tertiary Retinal Surgery, and Transfusion-Free Medicine & Surgery Center.  For more information visit www.goodsam.org.

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SOURCE Good Samaritan Hospital, Los Angeles