Baby-Friendly Initiative (BFI) designation is a globally recognized marker of excellence in maternity and newborn care. It signals that a healthcare facility is delivering evidence-based, equitable, and high-quality infant feeding support that improves outcomes for families and strengthens health systems.
Better Health Outcomes for Families
BFI-designated facilities consistently achieve higher rates of early breastfeeding initiation, exclusive breastfeeding, and longer breastfeeding duration. Suboptimal breastfeeding is associated with increased risks of infant hospital readmissions, infections, and obesity, as well as maternal breast and ovarian cancers, and type 2 diabetes.
A High-Value Investment in Healthcare
Breastfeeding is a powerful preventive health strategy. Suboptimal breastfeeding contributes to significant healthcare costs and disease burden, while increasing breastfeeding rates leads to measurable cost savings and system efficiencies. In Canada alone, increasing breastfeeding rates could save millions annually in healthcare costs.
Advancing Health Equity
BFI embeds standardized, supportive practices into routine care, helping reduce disparities in breastfeeding outcomes, particularly among families facing socio-economic barriers. By ensuring consistent, high-quality support, BFI improves access and outcomes across diverse communities.
Strengthening System Quality and Accountability
BFI translates national and international evidence-based recommendations into actionable, measurable practices. Through structured quality improvement, data monitoring, and external assessment, designation ensures that policies are not only in place but consistently implemented, evaluated, and sustained in practice.
Economic, Social, and Environmental Impact
Investing in breastfeeding and BFI yields broad societal benefits. Globally, suboptimal breastfeeding is associated with billions in economic losses, while increasing breastfeeding provides strong returns on investment. At the family level, breastfeeding reduces financial strain from breastmilk substitute costs and supports food security. It also reduces environmental impact compared to breastmilk substitutes.