Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth has been re-designated as a “Baby-Friendly” Hospital by Baby Friendly USA Inc., a global initiative led by the World Health Organization and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund.
Since its initial designation in 2010, Texas Health Fort Worth has been able to raise its breast feeding rates from 83 percent to 91 percent of moms.
The Texas average is 78 percent.
According to Baby-Friendly USA, mothers who give birth at Baby-Friendly hospitals are more likely to initiate exclusive breastfeeding and to sustain breastfeeding at six months and one year of age.
There are currently 14 other Baby-Friendly designated hospitals in Texas – with eight of those being Texas Health hospitals – and only 326 Baby-Friendly hospitals in the United States.
The hospital also has been voted the “Best Place to Have a Baby” in Tarrant County by readers of FortWorthChild magazine for the 21st year in a row.
Texas Health Fort Worth has welcomed more than 17,038 babies into the world in the last five years. In 2015, there were 3,536 babies born at the hospital, including 112 sets of twins, four sets of triplets and one set of quadruplets. October was the busiest birth month with 335 births.