Meeting the challenge of delivering high-quality breastfeeding training for all.

Staff training is an essential element of achieving the prestigious UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) global standard for organisations seeking to provide services that support breastfeeding. A breastfeeding self-study training programme (workbook and DVD) was developed by Health Behaviour Research Limited and delivered to healthcare staff in primary care trusts (PCTs), children's centres and their maternity units. As part of this training knowledge outcomes are measured before and after the training using the CUBA (Coventry University Breastfeeding Assessment). Interviews with participants showed that they welcomed the programme as a way of ensuring staff use evidence-based practice consistently. Self study is flexible but requires self organisation, time management against competing priorities and basic ICT skills and access. Recommendations, including the use of learning sets to encourage team learning and the production of a combined web and hard copy programme, came from the learning achieved by piloting this new programme.