Baby-Friendly Initiative Wood Buffalo
BFI Wood Buffalo is a group of Wood Buffalo residents that are passionate about the health and well-being of infants and children. The group is made up of mothers, health professionals, lactation consultants and community members at large. The committee’s goal is to raise awareness around the importance of breastfeeding and to improve the support available to all families in the community of Wood Buffalo – breastfeeding or not. The group came together in April 2012 in support of Fort McMurray Public Health’s commitment to become a Baby-Friendly Community Health Centre.
To view Fort McMurray Public Health’s commitment summary [Click here]
Our Mission
Baby-Friendly Initiative Wood Buffalo: Proud to embrace a thriving breastfeeding community.
Our Vision
To empower a community that inspires and encourages families to breastfeed through the understanding, education, advocacy and support of the Baby-Friendly Initiative.
Our Logo
Our logo represents a baby, skin-to-skin with his or her mother. The mother and the baby are supported by the father or support person. The family unit is then supported by the community, represented by the green circle. The colour green represents the growing and supportive community of Wood Buffalo.
*Please ask for permission prior to using our logo.
If you wish to use our logo, we can provide you with the appropriate file type. Contact Us
What do we do?
- Connect families with community resources (local, online and print)related to breastfeeding and infant feeding.
- Support healthcare professionals to seek and complete appropriate education to provide evidence based breastfeeding care.
- Support community businesses and employers to adopt breastfeeding policies.
- Network with community stakeholders to raise awareness about the importance of breastfeeding.
- Plan and participate in community events to raise awareness about the importance of breastfeeding.
- Plan annual World Breastfeeding Week celebrations to celebrate the breastfeeding families in our community and showcase breastfeeding support available.
Where are we going?
The overall goal of Baby-Friendly Initiative Wood Buffalo is to significantly increase the rates of initiation, duration and exclusive breastfeeding in Wood Buffalo. In order to do this, breastfeeding must be encouraged as the normal method of infant feeding.
Our objectives are to:
- Increase the level of awareness and commitment to the principles of the Baby-Friendly Initiative within the community of Wood Buffalo
- Increase the level of knowledge of health professionals and support staff around infant feeding best practice (the Integrated BFI 10 Steps and the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk substitutes).
- Provide accurate and consistent information to prenatal families, postnatal families and the general public around best practice in infant feeding.
- Evaluate and ensure that the Baby-Friendly Initiative strategies and actions are meeting the needs of targeted populations via data surveillance and the use of evidenced based evaluation tools.
- Provide consistent awareness, education and programming continuously over the next five years and beyond.
- Develop partnerships, networks and collaborative strategies with health care organizations, health care providers, consumers and multi-sectoral organizations in the community of Wood Buffalo.
- Effectively promote a Baby-Friendly culture by increasing awareness and understanding of the positive impact that breastfeeding has on infants, mothers, families, communities and society.
We host community meetings to discuss strategies and to plan events.
Want to join? Contact Us.
Check out our Calendar for events and meeting information.