Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative: A critical analysis within the nursing workforce

Keywords

baby-friendly hospital, nurse, nurse-parent, nursing workforce, retention, nursing ethics, ethics of care, moral distress, nurse-mother, breastfeeding, postpartum, motherhood, working mother, working parent

Abstract

Healthcare systems routinely frame breastfeeding as an ethical and clinical priority requiring institutional protection, particularly in maternity and newborn services. The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative represents a global effort to embed these commitments through policy, practice, and environmental support. While these protections are well established for patient-mothers, far less attention has been given to how they are applied to the nursing workforce responsible for enacting them. The authors critically appraise an ethical contradiction experienced by lactating nurse-mothers. Breastfeeding is institutionally supported for patients but structurally constrained within nurses’ own workplaces. Using relational ethics as the primary interpretive lens, supported by clinical and organizational ethics frameworks, the analysis positions nurse-mothers as embodied ethical agents whose experiences reveal systemic moral incoherence within maternal-centered institutions. Evidence suggests that nurse-mothers frequently encounter delayed or denied pumping breaks, inadequate lactation facilities, stigmatization, and career penalties despite strong breastfeeding knowledge and commitment. These conditions generate ethical tension, moral distress, and professional disengagement. Achieving ethical integrity in Baby-Friendly Hospitals therefore requires enforceable structural protections that recognize maternal embodiment and caregiving as legitimate dimensions of ethically sustainable professional life.

Original Publication Citation

Watson, A. L., Jackson, D., & Bond, C. (2026). Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative: A critical analysis within the nursing workforce. Nursing Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1177/09697330261449454

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2026-05-27

Publisher

Nursing Ethics; Sage Journals

Language

English

College

Nursing

Department

Nursing

University Standing at Time of Publication

Assistant Professor

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS