MATERNITY services at Taunton's Musgrove Park Hospital have been recognised as baby friendly by world children’s charity UNICEF.

The hospital received the highest possible stage 3 baby friendly initiative rating for its efforts to promote breastfeeding.

It follows a visit by a UNICEF team of assessors, who quizzed parents and staff about the level of breastfeeding support and advice given to new mums.

They concluded that midwives and maternity staff positively support mothers and babies with their infant feeding decisions and said they witnessed staff actively encouraging the development of close and loving relationships between parents and babies.

Musgrove met all five standards to gain the BFI accreditation: •support for pregnant women to recognise the importance of breastfeeding and early relationships for babies' health and wellbeing.

•support for mothers and babies to initiate a close relationship and feeding soon after birth.

•helping mothers get breastfeeding off to a good start.

•supporting mothers to make informed decisions about the introduction of food or fluids other than breastmilk.

•supporting parents to have a close and loving relationship with their baby.

Debra Young, Musgrove's head of midwifery and children’s services, said the recognition was a great accolade to the outstanding midwifery, maternity and neonatal teams.

She added: “The feedback we had from the visiting UNICEF team was that we have a positive, friendly and open culture about infant feeding.

“At Musgrove we actively remind our staff of the health outcomes of breastfeeding and how crucial a part they play in supporting mothers to breastfeed successfully."