Students are ‘Champions’ for UON being baby friendly

University of Northampton’s (UON) commitment to keeping babies and parents comfortable when on campus remains on target for delivery with a new team of students.

BSc Midwifery students have been made BFI Champions to support and enhance an international parent/baby feeding, nutrition and bonding scheme that is part of their degree.

UNICEF’s Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) covers several areas, such as educating families about breast and formula feeding and giving training to students and professionals.

The University has had BFI gold accreditation since 2023, meaning UON is committed to enhancing and promoting BFI to staff, students and visitors to Waterside Campus.

Adding to this, the University has created a group of BFI Champions, Midwifery students who are passionate about enhancing and promoting the initiative at the University.

Working together with the BFI lead and Senior Lecturer in Midwifery Tracy LaPenna, the Champions’ duties also include informing UON’s curriculum development about BFI and supporting people who need to use the University’s dedicated baby feeding room.

The baby feeding room is located on the ground floor of the Learning Hub building near to the Student Futures and Students’ Union teams.

Midwifery student Ayomide Oreyeni points out where the room is; her lecturer, Tracy LaPenna, sits on the room’s feeding chair.

The room contains a comfortable feeding chair and baby changing station platform. The room is open for all to use, visitors just need to ask for a security code at the Learning Hub’s ground floor information desk.

One of the BFI Champions is Jade Coggin (pictured below). As part of her role as a Champion, she has created a wall of affirmation, with positive messages for parents to focus on when feeding their child.

Jade says: “I am delighted to join the team of students and midwifery academics who are committed to good baby feeding and nutrition information and support.

“We may be new as BFI Champions but have already delivered newsletters for other students and next up is creating a series of videos with top tips for students and best practice with breastfeeding for their patients. We want to make everything about BFI and baby feeding as relatable as possible for our peers and future cohorts of students.”

Email Tracey for more information about BFI at UON: tracylapenna@northampton.ac.uk