Six health centres on Lanzarote have successfully fulfilled requirements to become recognised as IHAN (Initiative for a more Human Birth and Lactation Care) centres.
Supported by Unicef and the World Health Organisation, IHAN is an initiative that seeks to encourage hospitals, health centres and maternity wards to promote, support and encourage breastfeeding from birth.
The health centres at Valterra and Titerroy (both in Arrecife), Playa Blanca, Playa Honda, San Bartolomé and Costa Teguise have already been working under the criteria required by IHAN, and five breastfeeding groups already exist on the island to support, inform and help mothers to adopt breastfeeding.
The initiative to humanise all aspects of maternity care is. Spain has one of the best childbirth records in the world, and better survival rates than the UK, but some feel this efficiency has come at the expense of a more human approach.
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