Waterford Regional Hospital has become the first hospital in the south east and one of only two hospitals in Ireland to receive the World Health Organisation's Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative Award for best practice.

This is a global initiative by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund to encourage hospitals and health workers to support breastfeeding. Before now, only the Ulster Hospital in Belfast has achieved this accreditation in Ireland.

In order to earn the title of Baby Friendly Hospital, maternity units must follow a 10-step programme laid out by the WHO.

These steps include baby-led feeding, encouraging babies to sleep alongside mothers, uninterrupted contact between the mother and the baby for the first hour after birth where possible and, in the case of an emergency Caesarian section, the mother and baby should be together uninterrupted as soon as the mother awakes. All maternity staff receive training, and lactation consultants are made available in baby friendly hospitals.

Waterford Regional Hospital has implemented the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding as outlined by the global initiative. Currently more than 50 per cent of women who deliver in Waterford Regional Hospital start breastfeeding.

After two decades of dwindling popularity, breastfeeding is gradually on the increase again in Ireland as mothers are educated about its health benefits. Recent research points to a correlation between breastfeeding and a reduction in the later incidence of obesity in older children and young adults.

Breastfed babies show more stable growth, which has positive effects on blood pressure, cholesterol levels and heart disease.

Official figures show that in 2000, 40 per cent of Irish women were breastfeeding on discharge from hospital, against 37 per cent in 1999. Unofficial figures for 2004 are even higher, reaching almost 47 per cent.

The critical first few days in hospital make all the difference to a mother's decision to proceed with breastfeeding.

Maternity hospitals throughout Ireland are currently working towards Baby Friendly Hospital accreditation. Pat McLoughlin, South Eastern Health Board chief executive officer, says: "Achieving this award has taken four years of continuous work and commitment from all of the health professionals in the maternity unit and from the nursing and general management of the hospital.

There has been much collaboration with community workers, voluntary organisations and with the mothers themselves."