Health Centres IHAN (Initiative for a more Human Birth and Lactation Care). A quality assurance

The World Health Organization and the UNICEF launched in 1992 the "Baby Friendly Initiative". Its objective was to promote Breastfeeding (BF) all around the world by getting Maternities to adopt "The 10 steps to successful breastfeeding" and the International Code for Marketing of Human Milk Substitutes. After 18 years, the Initiative has succeeded in increasing BF initiation rates and has contributed to women's and baby's health general improvement all around the world. However, mean duration of lactation persists well below the desired 6 months and there are still too many mothers who abandon on the first few weeks. There are now many countries where the Initiative has been extended to the community. The mission is to adopt practices of Excellency to assure the best initiation into life for every newborn and their families, and the pursuit of happy and prolonged breastfeeding, exclusive for the first 6 months and complemented with adequate and safe complementary foods until 2 years or more. Aware of the importance of Primary Health Care in the promotion, support and maintenance of human lactation, and following the example of other European countries, "IHAN-Comité Nacional" (Baby Friendly Spain), with the support of the "Asociación Española de Pediatría de Atención Primaria" (Spanish Primary Care Pediatrics' Association) launches the Baby Friendly Initiative for the Community: "Centros de Salud IHAN".