Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative Network

To support the provision of technical assistance, the World Health Organization (WHO) has grouped member states into regions. The BFHI Network basically follows the same regional structure but may include some subnational entities not recognized by the WHO.  This page features the nations whose BFHI Country Coordinator has submitted data on the BFHI and breastfeeding from the Americas.  For more information about each country’s data, contact the country directly using the contact email provided under their flag. As more nations from the region submit data, their information will be added to this page.

Canada

BFHI Name: Breastfeeding Committee for Canada    

BFHI Program Status: Active

Website URL: www.breastfeedingcanada.ca 

Contact email: contactus@breastfeedingcanada.ca

Data element

Data

Year

# BFHI designated facilities

37

2023

# annual births in country

351,679

2022

% births in BFHI designated facilities

9%

2022

Breastfeeding initiation rates

91.1%

2018

Immediate skin-to-skin contact

No data

Early initiation of breastfeeding

No data

Exclusively breastfed for the first 2 days

~55%

2018

Breastfeeding at 6 months

62.2%        

2018

 

United States

BFHI Name: Baby-Friendly USA

BFHI Program Status: Active

Website URL: www.babyfriendlyusa.org

Contact email: info@babyfriendlyusa.org

Data element

Data

Year

# BFHI designated facilities

593

2023

# annual births in country

3,661,220

2022

% births in BFHI designated facilities

26.5%

2022

Breastfeeding initiation rates

83.2%

2022

Immediate skin-to-skin contact

No data

Early initiation of breastfeeding

No data

Exclusively breastfed for the first 2 days

No data

Breastfeeding at 6 months

24.9%  

2022