Breastfeeding Support

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center are both designated as Baby-Friendly Hospitals by Baby-Friendly USA.

The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) is a global program to encourage the broad-scale implementation of the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.

UCLA Health is committed to giving families the information, confidence, and skills necessary to successfully initiate and continue breastfeeding their babies after birth. All health care organizations recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life, the gradual introduction of complimentary foods and continued breastfeeding for the first two years or longer. If you are a working parent, appropriate planning can help ease your transition back to work and continue to meet your breastfeeding goals while you are working. See Breastfeeding: A Guide for the Working Parent for important information and tips about breastfeeding and returning to work.

In cases where patients have a medical indication or have made an informed decision to use formula, the safe preparation and feeding of formula is provided to families.

UCLA Health is committed to providing and promoting compassionate, inclusive and equitable care throughout our health system. We hold to these core values and practices, despite the ever-changing winds of public discourse. Our commitment to lesbian, gay, trans, and gender-diverse patients is unwavering.  We encourage you to share your preferred pronouns and terms for infant feeding such as chestfeeding.