MIDWIVES at Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton, are celebrating after international charity Unicef declared the hospital as Gold Standard for its baby friendly care and support.

Future generations of babies, their mothers and families under the care of the hospital’s maternity unit will continue to experience the best baby friendly standards.

Unicef has rated only five other hospitals in the UK as Gold Standard and Musgrove Park is the first in the South-West.

Some of the measures put in place as part of the Gold Standard accreditation include:

Increasing the number of hours an infant-feeding midwife is available from 45 to 95 hours, while improving and knowledge for staff across the whole maternity unit

Every clinical ward area across the maternity unit has a breastfeeding champion

Additional training for maternity and neonatal unit staff

Action plans in place for challenges, such as women who need to be readmitted

Development of training and services for strongly related topics such as perinatal mental health

Development of transitional care to enable mothers and babies to remain together.