Press release – issued 17 April 2026
2026/005
First NHS maternity service in West Midlands to be awarded UNICEF Gold Baby Friendly Award
Wye Valley NHS Trust’s maternity service is the first in the West Midlands to be awarded the prestigious UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) Gold Award, the highest level of accreditation.
The award recognises the maternity team’s long-term excellence in providing infant feeding support to families to a high standard, helping to ensure a positive experience, and giving babies the best possible start in life.
Since first achieving Baby Friendly Status in 2019, Wye Valley NHS Trust’s (WVT) maternity team has continued to strengthen and build on this to meet UNICEF’s evidence‑based Gold standard, which is a nationally recognised mark of quality care.
The maternity team provide support to families from the antenatal period through to the postnatal stage to help parents with feeding and caring for their babies.
Mel Kerwin, WVT infant feeding lead, said: “We are very proud of our maternity team for this achievement and their ongoing dedication to provide compassionate family-centred care. This focuses on empowering parents in their informed feeding choices of their baby, continued feeding support, promoting skin to skin contact and bonding with their baby to help promote close loving relationships.
“We have seen an increase in breastfeeding initiation rates to 90 per cent of all babies born, a 10 per cent improvement, and long-term feeding rates have increased to 59 per cent, above the national average, as a direct result of our work to achieve this standard.”
Lucy Flanagan, WVT chief nursing officer and Baby Friendly Guardian said: “We’re delighted to receive the BFI Gold Award, which recognises our maternity team’s ongoing commitment to deliver consistently high‑quality infant feeding care and support for families. This Gold Award demonstrates that we have embedded Baby Friendly standards across our maternity service, which are benefitting parents and babies to help improve health outcomes.”
To find out more about infant feeding and support please speak to your midwife, maternity support worker or health visitor, or visit Wye Valley NHS Trust’s website www.wyevalley.nhs.uk – search for infant feeding.
Photo
Far left Abbi Maddox - maternity manager, Mel Kerwin, Claire Collins, Arwen Nixon – infant feeding team, centre - Parents – Ashamol Joseph (mum), baby – Adeline Elezabeth Ajeesh and Ajeesh Thomas (dad), far right Alice Stott – maternity manager.
Ends
Notes to Editors WVT:
- Wye Valley NHS Trust is a provider of health services across Herefordshire and beyond. The Trust exists to improve the wellbeing, independence and health of the people we serve.
- By working closely with our partners, we can make good our promise to deliver a quality of care we would want for ourselves, our families and our friends.
- With an estimated annual turnover of around £400 million, we employ around 4,000 staff. We aim to build new relationships between our staff, patients, service users and their carers with the wider community.
For further information please contact:
Fiona Gurney, communications officer, or John Burnett, Communication and Engagement Manager, Wye Valley NHS Trust: 01432 372928