Impact
UNICEF managed to contribute to significant progress in this area and to identify innovative ways of supporting public health issues:
At national level
- Assisted in increasing quality of health care and nutrition for newborns in Baby-Friendly Hospitals. Currently, of the 204 maternities, including 45 large maternities with over 3,000 deliveries per year, 32 maternity hospitals with a total 60,000 newborns per year (representing almost 30%) joined the BFHI and initiated policy development and capacity building of staff. Since 2006 BFHI criteria/requirements have been recognised as quality indicators used as norms and standards by the National Health Insurance Fund for evaluation and accreditation of maternity hospitals.
- Strengthened the capacity of decision-makers for nutrition and public health policies. For the past two years, activities included in the National Programme for the Health of Women and Children of the Ministry of Public Health were developed based on evidence revealed by research and integrated recommendations from research results (i.e. National Integrated Nutrition Surveys).
- Enhanced the capacity of professionals to monitor, evaluate and improve quality of response, and enlarge the Baby-Friendly Hospital network. Currently, some 100 trainers of trainers are actively promoting breastfeeding and offering capacity building activities for about 10,000 peers working in the 32 maternity hospitals. A group of 20 professionals with newly acquired knowledge and skills ensure the process of evaluation and facilitative certification of the 32 Baby-Friendly Hospitals.
- Capitalised on experiences and lessons learned for mother and child care service reform. Sharing experience and lessons learned from hospitals that are more advanced in the BFHI is essential for promoting national coverage. Moreover, experiences in the European Union and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, and accumulated lessons facilitated between countries can contribute to the sustainability of BFHI.
- Enhanced public private partnership contributing to BFHI implementation. Awareness campaigns and local fundraising events organised by UNICEF leveraged significant resources for the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative in Romania, up to USD 800,000 in the past few years. Firm commitments from important private sector donors for the support of this initiative will contribute to the successful implementation of BFHI.
At local level
- Promoted increased rates of breastfeeding in hospital. Research shows that the breastfeeding rate at discharge from the maternity hospitals is over 90% nationwide, with some maternity hospitals which joined the BFH initiative reaching 99%.
- Strengthened the capacity of public health authorities to plan, diversify and implement action for increasing breastfeeding rates. An evaluation of pilot activities of community nurses was used for further development of the community nurse network. By the end of 2006, 1,200 community nurses in most of the 41 Romanian counties and Bucharest were trained, up from 485 in 24 counties the year before.
- Mobilised private sector and social corporate responsibility for BFHI. Local initiatives for resource mobilisation ensured funding of projects in maternities in 5 counties, for a total of 11 maternities, reaching over 10,000 mother-newborn couples. Partnerships with the private sector help to increase awareness among members of the community, including enhanced social responsibility for children.
