Since 1991, BCC has worked to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding and advance the Baby-Friendly Initiative across Canada. Explore the milestones below to learn more about our history and impact.
Founding and National Leadership
1991: The Breastfeeding Committee for Canada (BCC) was established as a Health Canada initiative following the World Summit for Children and in response to the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF Innocenti Declaration. UNICEF Canada provided administrative support until approximately 2012.
1996: BCC became a registered non-profit organization with a mission to make breastfeeding the cultural norm for infant feeding in Canada. The organization brought together dedicated volunteers working to improve breastfeeding initiation, exclusivity, and duration rates nationwide. It was also tasked with adapting and implementing the Global Criteria for the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) within the Canadian context. Renamed the Baby-Friendly Initiative (BFI) in Canada, BCC became the national authority responsible for BFI designation.
National Expansion and Adaption
1998: The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative was launched in Vancouver. Later that year, BCC expanded the initiative to include community health services, broadening the focus beyond hospitals to ensure continuous and sustainable support for families.
2001: BCC attended its first WHO-convened BFHI Network meeting in London, UK, and has participated in the international network ever since.
2004: BCC published The Seven Point Plan for the Protection, Promotion and Support of Breastfeeding in Community Health Services and The Ten Steps and Practice Outcome Indicators for Baby-Friendly Hospitals.
2011: BCC published The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative: Revised, Updated and Expanded for Integrated Care – BFI Integrated 10 Steps Practice Outcome Indicators for Hospitals and Community Health Services.
2014: BCC undertook an organizational renewal process using Lean Six Sigma and quality improvement principles to strengthen its vision, mission, and operations.
2017: At the BCC Symposium in New Brunswick, strategic planning was undertaken in response to updated WHO BFHI implementation guidelines. BCC also submitted a national BFI Status Report to the Public Health Agency of Canada and the BFHI Network for Industrialized Countries for inclusion in the WHO biannual report.
Advancing Quality Improvement and Research
2019: The National Canadian Baby-Friendly Initiative Quality Improvement Collaborative Project received funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada. Findings from the project were subsequently published in BMJ Open Quality.
2021: BCC published The Baby-Friendly Initiative Implementation Guideline, providing updated national guidance for implementing the BFI across healthcare settings in Canada.
2022: BCC launched the BFI Coach Mentor Project: Scaling Up Baby-Friendly to support the expansion of Baby-Friendly implementation across Canada.
2024: BCC and the University of Manitoba received CIHR funding for the two-year Community Baby-Friendly Initiative Collaborative (CBFI-C), supporting Community Health Services across Canada in working toward Baby-Friendly designation. The study protocol was published in BMJ Open.
2025: The BFI Recognition Program was launched, supported by new digital data collection and quality improvement tools. The BFI External Assessment process was also modernized to be more collaborative, facility-driven, and supported by virtual assessment and electronic reporting.