Student midwives praised by Unicef

By Julie Griffiths on 09 July 2018 Breastfeeding UNICEF Student midwives

Examiners from Unicef have been impressed by the breastfeeding knowledge of midwifery students at the University of Salford. 

Inspectors spoke to midwifery students and lecturers at the university and gave them a 100% pass mark for meeting the standards of their Baby Friendly Breastfeeding Initiative.

The accreditation – given to the university for the third time running – means that students have a high level of educating new parents about breastfeeding.

Examiners spoke to a random selection of 20 third-year midwifery students, who are about to graduate and said they were impressed with the levels of ‘women-centred’ caring and compassion the students demonstrated.

Unicef has now invited the university to apply for their newly introduced gold standard of accreditation – given only to organisations that are able to display exceptionally high levels of understanding.

Midwifery lecturer Anne Leyland said the university works closely with NHS trusts and local authorities across the region to promote the importance of breastfeeding.

She said: ‘Because there are a lot of deprived areas within Salford and across Greater Manchester, it’s very important that prospective parents are as well informed as possible about the benefits of breastfeeding.

‘We have a lot of poor health outcomes in this area, particularly childhood obesity, diabetes and heart disease, and all the evidence shows that if children are breastfed they have the best start in life and the best chance of avoiding these health problems.

‘We’re very proud of our students and delighted that Unicef has awarded us this accreditation once again, which means our trainee midwives are incredibly competent in providing the best evidence-based information to new parents about how and why babies should be breastfed.’