(KATY, Texas) – Memorial Hermann Katy Hospital has earned designation as a Texas Ten Step facility by the Texas Department of State Health Services for the sixth consecutive year. The Texas Ten Step program supports breastfeeding as the preferred feeding method for newborns and infants.
Based on the World Health Organization (WHO)/UNICEF’s Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, the program assists birth facilities in supporting breastfeeding mothers before, during, and after delivery. Birthing facilities are encouraged by the program to identify breastfeeding resources for mothers after discharge. The program also assists facilities in improving on national performance measures like the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Breastfeeding Report Card.
“Supporting the health of breastfeeding mothers and their children is an absolute priority for us and we are incredibly proud to once again earn the Texas Ten Step designation,” said Memorial Hermann Katy lactation consultant Carol Carroll, BA, BSN, RNC-MNN, IBCLC. “It is incredibly important that we are able to provide families the education and resources to help facilitate breastfeeding, while also addressing the numerous potential challenges each mother and newborn may face.”
To earn Texas Ten Step designation, facilities are required to evaluate current practices; educate all healthcare staff with evidence-based courses; make improvements where needed; and must be jointly designated as a Texas Mother-Friendly Worksite that supports an employee’s right to express breastmilk while at work.
More than 2,000 babies are delivered each year at Memorial Hermann Katy. The hospital offers a wide scope of women’s and children’s services, including prenatal classes in breastfeeding, newborn care and prepared childbirth, inpatient lactation consults, high-risk pregnancy clinic, Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), antepartum and postpartum programs, and a postpartum mother-baby unit.
There are currently 10 Memorial Hermann Health System hospitals designated as Texas Ten Step facilities.
To locate an OB/GYN nearest you, go to www.memorialhermann.org/schedulenow, or call 713-222-CARE (2273).
Memorial Hermann Katy is located at 23900 Katy Freeway, Katy. For more information about Memorial Hermann Katy, call 281-644-7000.