KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Percy Junor Hospital in Manchester has been accredited as a baby-friendly institution, becoming the 12th local public hospital to be certified under the global initiative.

A programme of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) recognises health facilities that provide optimal care for mothers and newborns and actively supports breastfeeding.

The initiative promotes practices that have proven to improve infant survival and long-term health outcomes. These include early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, and continued breastfeeding with appropriate complementary foods for up to two years or beyond.

Speaking at the accreditation ceremony held at the hospital in Spalding on Thursday, Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Christopher Tufton, congratulated the management and staff of Percy Junor Hospital on the achievement, noting that it reflects a commitment to quality standards in infant and maternal care.

He noted that the accreditation aligns with the Ministry’s broader strategy to reduce infant mortality, improve maternal health outcomes, and strengthen quality standards across the public health system.

Dr Tufton said that Percy Junor’s accreditation takes the country just over the half-way mark in terms of the number of hospitals in the country that are baby-friendly certified.

He noted that when he took office in 2016, only one of the island’s 23 hospitals had baby-friendly designation.

“Today, there are 12 hospitals that have baby-friendly designation. That’s a big deal! It means that we are improving standards…it means that the team in the respective institutions are doing the work, have been provided with the support, whether through our external agencies, our region, or the Ministry,” Tufton said.

“Today, I challenge the remaining 11 institutions, over the next three to five years – and I hope it’s more three than five – to make us complete … by doing the necessary work to achieve baby-friendly status,” he urged.

“If 12 hospitals can achieve baby-friendly status, 23 can achieve baby-friendly status. If the people in 12 can do the work to get it done, the remaining 11 can do the work to get it done,” he expressed.

Noting that Percy Junor Hospital has seen a 64 per cent decline in births from 201 in 2024 to 71 in 2025, Tufton urged community health aides to go into the communities to engage with families and promote responsible child-rearing.

“Our job is to promote responsible parenting, not just to have children for children’s sake… It raises a fundamental issue that we have to manage, as part of public health… that health is about community. That’s why health centres and community hospitals are so important, because you are the heartbeat, so to speak, of your community. And, you’re going to be called on more to provide guidance to those who need guidance,” he said.

“We represent the credibility factor of most communities. We must leverage the credibility that we represent, by spending more time in the community, to talk to people, to encourage families, to encourage responsible parenting and to say to people, ‘It’s okay to have children, and there is a way to be responsible as a parent, and to grow your child to a point where you can achieve the bragging rights that you deserve,” he said.

For her part, Acting Chief Executive Officer, Percy Junor Hospital, Faith Sterling, expressed pleasure at the hospital’s baby-friendly accreditation.

“I am absolutely elated. This does not only mean that our standards have been raised. It means a positive paradigm shift in the right direction in becoming a first-class hospital in not only Jamaica, but the Caribbean,” she told JIS News.

— JIS