Midwifery programme awarded UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Accreditation

City St George’s, University of London’s BMid Midwifery programme has achieved full UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Accreditation, recognising its commitment to preparing future midwives to provide evidence-based, compassionate support to women, babies and families.

The UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative is part of a global programme supporting services and universities to protect, promote and support breastfeeding and infant feeding, while strengthening close and loving relationships between parents and their babies.

At City St George’s, Baby Friendly principles are threaded throughout the BMid Midwifery curriculum. Students progressively develop their knowledge, practical skills and confidence through academic teaching, simulation and clinical skills education, alongside professional placements within London maternity services.

The accreditation follows several years of work across the Department of Midwifery and a comprehensive assessment process involving students, academic colleagues and curriculum. The programme successfully passed all stages of the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly assessment process, and UNICEF UK’s Designation Committee has now confirmed full accreditation. This achievement reflects the collective commitment of our students and staff, with BFI Student Champions playing a particularly valuable role in supporting their peers and strengthening Baby Friendly learning across the programme.

Speaking about the accreditation, Shujana Keraudren, Midwifery Lecturer and Baby Friendly Initiative Lead in the School of Health & Medical Sciences (SHMS) at City St George’s, said:

“This is incredibly important work, and I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to contribute to it. As a mother of two, having breastfed and tandem fed my own children, I came to the Baby Friendly journey with a great deal of personal enthusiasm. What I perhaps hadn’t anticipated was just how much work we still had ahead of us to ensure that all our students could confidently meet the Baby Friendly standards.

“It has been a real journey, and I am extremely proud of our final-year students, whose commitment, hard work and willingness to engage with us have brought us to this achievement. This accreditation recognises the quality of our teaching, but most importantly, it gives us confidence that our students are leaving us equipped to make a positive difference to the women, babies and families they will care for.”

Michelle Ellis, Associate Dean for EDI and Baby Friendly Guardian, welcomed the accreditation and its significance for sustaining Baby Friendly standards across the programme:

"As the Baby Friendly Guardian for SHMS, I am absolutely delighted that the Midwifery Programme has been awarded the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly accreditation. This is an important achievement for SHMS, the team and our students. This demonstrates the significant hard work of Midwifery colleagues and reflects the knowledge, skills and excellent achievements of our students. 

“I would like to extend my congratulations and thanks to all who contributed to this achievement - the BFI student champions, Midwifery students, Clinical Practice Facilitators and colleagues. A special thank you to Shujana Keraudren (BFI Project Lead) and Emma- Jane Berridge (Lead Midwife for Education). 

“This is important for our Athena Swan Charter Silver Award and our commitment to gender equity more broadly. We will continue to adhere to UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative standards, comply with the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and ensure that this impacts practice more widely.”

Dr Emma-Jane Berridge, Divisional Lead for Midwifery & Lead Midwife for Education (LME), also welcomed the achievement and its importance for the Department and its students:

"UNICEF BFI Accreditation is something the team has aspired to for our BMid programme for several years, and this is something we and our students have worked hard to achieve. I am thrilled that the programme is now Baby Friendly accredited, and students graduating with a City St George's Midwifery degree can show employers and service users that they have received gold standard training in infant feeding and relationship building. Knowing CSGUL graduates have the knowledge and skills to provide Baby Friendly support to parents and babies, which can have a real-world individual and public health impact, is something we are really proud of.

“I hope the accreditation will empower new and continuing students in their conversations with service users and families, and our graduating cohort will be role models as they develop as practitioners. The accreditation is the culmination of so much hard work by our BFI Lead, Shujana Keraudren, in particular and the whole team. Thank you and congratulations to Shujana and Midwifery colleagues and our students; we look forward to consolidating our achievements and continuing on our Baby Friendly journey."

The accreditation reflects the collaborative approach to midwifery education at City St George’s, bringing together students, academic staff, BFI Student Champions and practice partners across London. It also complements the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Accreditation already held by the University’s Health Visiting programme, further strengthening a shared approach to evidence-based infant feeding education across the University.

For BMid students, the award means that Baby Friendly standards remain an integral part of their preparation for professional practice. Students develop the knowledge and skills to protect, promote and support breastfeeding, support responsive and safe infant feeding, and enable parents to build close and loving relationships with their babies.

The achievement also reflects City St George’s wider commitment to creating an inclusive and supportive learning community and aligns with the University’s Athena Swan pledge to advance equality and inclusion.

Get involved: knit or crochet a breast for a student midwife

As part of our continuing Baby Friendly work, we warmly welcome staff, students, friends and family members who knit or crochet to get involved in one of our practical initiatives. Our ambition is to provide every student midwife with a knitted or crocheted breast that they can carry with them during placement and use as a simple teaching aid when supporting women and families with breastfeeding.

Whether you can make one or several, every contribution would be greatly appreciated and will directly support the learning of our student midwives and the families they care for. Anyone interested in volunteering is warmly invited to contact Shujana Keraudren for further information and patterns.

Continuing the Baby Friendly journey

Accreditation marks an important milestone rather than the end of the programme’s Baby Friendly journey. The Department will continue to work with students and practice partners to embed and strengthen the standards through curriculum development, annual auditing and student partnership.

The programme will submit annual audit results to UNICEF UK and will continue to build on the strong role that students have played in achieving the award, ensuring that future generations of City St George’s midwives graduate confident in providing high-quality, individualised care to women, babies and families.