Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative – a policy of promoting, protecting and supporting breastfeeding*

Objective: To conduct a literature review about the ten steps of the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI). Methods: We sought documents and scientific papers published in the databases of PubMED, Medline, SciELO and LILACS. Results: We initially identified 110 references about the BFHI, between the years of 1979 to 2009. Approximately 21% were published in the 1990s and 79% between 2000 and 2009; 10.8% were published in books and official documents of the Ministry of Health, Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization; and, 89.2% were in articles indexed in the consulted databases. Of these, 35 references were selected. The analyzed studies showed that changes in hospital practices according to the Ten Steps of BFHI increased the prevalence of breastfeeding. Conclusion: Through the studies analyzed, the BFHI showed effectiveness in increasing breastfeeding in many regions of the world, contributing to the reduction of infant morbidity and mortality.