They don't give pacifiers to breast-fed newborns and they no longer accept freebie baby formula — two reasons why University of Utah Hospital has been named a "baby friendly hospital," one of only 73 centers in the United States to earn the designation.

The certification was awarded by the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, a global program sponsored by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. The idea is to make breast-feeding easier by educating new mothers and by taking away obstacles, such as binkies and bottles, that can undermine lactation.

That doesn't mean that mothers who give birth at University Hospital have to nurse their infants, says Dr. Karen Buchi, professor of pediatrics and medical director of the hospital's well baby nursery. "We don't require they even try," and some mothers and infants may have medical conditions that make nursing impossible. But if they do want to try, "we're prepared to help mom learn." Breast-feeding, she notes, doesn't come naturally to some infants.

Buchi says that breast-feeding for the first six months has been proven to bring health benefits as children grow, including a reduction in food allergies and ear infections (80 percent fewer infections compared to non-breast-fed infants, according to the BFHI), and some studies have linked nursing to cognitive development. Formula, she adds, "can't replicate everything you get in breast milk."

University Hospital's breast-feeding initiative includes providing extra lactation training for all nurses in delivery, newborn ICU and postpartum areas, so that "it doesn't matter what time of day it is, somebody will be there to help," Buchi says.

In addition, the hospital assures that newborns will remain with their moms as much as possible while in the hospital, optimally not separated for more than an hour in every 24. And, whenever medically possible, newborns stay with their moms immediately after delivery, "so they can get latched on to mom in the first hour of life."

Nurses, doctors and parents need to be educated, she adds, "that healthy, term babies don't need (formula) supplementation" while waiting for mom's milk to come in.

Utah's La Leche League, a breast-feeding support group, is pleased with the University Hospital's certification. "I challenge other hospitals to rise to this challenge on behalf of Utah mothers and babies," says the league's Christy Porucznik.

"The certification is hard to get," Porucznik says, "because there are so many corporate interests against it." To overcome those, she says, represents "major cultural shifts."

E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com