The Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding
| 1. Have a written breastfeeding-friendly policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff. |
| 2. Train all health care staff in the skills necessary to implement this policy. |
| 3. Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding. |
| 4. Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within 1 hour of birth. |
| 5. Show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation, even if they are separated from their infants. |
| 6. Give infants no food or drink other than breast milk, unless medically indicated. |
| 7. Practice rooming in: allow mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day. |
| 8. Encourage breastfeeding on demand. |
| 9. Give no pacifiers or artificial nipples to breastfeeding infants.a |
| 10. Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or birth center. |
| 1. Have a written breastfeeding-friendly policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff. |
| 2. Train all health care staff in the skills necessary to implement this policy. |
| 3. Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding. |
| 4. Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within 1 hour of birth. |
| 5. Show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation, even if they are separated from their infants. |
| 6. Give infants no food or drink other than breast milk, unless medically indicated. |
| 7. Practice rooming in: allow mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day. |
| 8. Encourage breastfeeding on demand. |
| 9. Give no pacifiers or artificial nipples to breastfeeding infants.a |
| 10. Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or birth center. |
The AAP does not support a categorical ban on pacifiers because of their role in SIDS risk reduction and their analgesic benefit during painful procedures when breastfeeding cannot provide the analgesia. Pacifier use in the hospital in the neonatal period should be limited to specific medical indications, such as pain reduction, calming in a drug-exposed infant, etc. For breastfed infants, pacifier introduction should be delayed until breastfeeding is firmly established. Infants who are not being directly breastfed can begin pacifier use as soon as desired.