Edge Hill’s Midwifery department is celebrating the incredible achievement of gaining UNICEF’s UK Baby Friendly accreditation. The Baby Friendly Initiative has worked for over 30 years with UK public services to ensure that all babies get the best possible start in life – so this accreditation means our students will graduate with even more knowledge and more opportunities to make an impact at this crucial stage.
What is the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative accreditation?
The UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) is a globally recognised accreditation programme that supports maternity, health visiting, community, and children’s services to provide high-quality care. Its focus is on helping parents build close, loving relationships with their babies and feed them in ways that promote optimal health and development.
What does this mean for Midwifery students?
Following a rigorous assessment by BFI UNICEF external assessors, our accreditation acknowledges how comprehensively the BFI standards have been embedded within our curriculum.
This provides assurance that our students are equipped to support families with their infant feeding and parenting needs and to ensure the promotion of close and loving relationships. This strong foundation of knowledge and confidence enables our learners to make an immediate positive impact as they enter the workplace following qualification.
Having this crucial knowledge so early will make our students highly desirable to employers, alongside making them better and more well-rounded professionals.
“Achieving BFI reaccreditation is a reflection of the high-quality teaching and strong focus we place on infant feeding and relationship-building throughout our midwifery programme. It’s taken real dedication from our team of lecturers and genuine engagement from our students, who have embraced this learning and are already making a difference in practice.
This accreditation means our graduates are well prepared to deliver compassionate, evidence-based care that supports families at one of the most important times in their lives — and they are a real credit to Edge Hill University. We now begin the work of ensuring that our BFI aligned curriculum continues to be embedded – we also strive for continuous improvement and an assurance of project sustainability for the University as a whole. We will continue to recognise the voices of students, service users and our practice partners along this journey.”
Katherine Conquest
Senior Midwifery Lecturer & BFI Lead
Studying Midwifery at Edge Hill
We’re committed to high-quality education, professional leadership and educating students who will go on to make meaningful contributions to public health.
Our BSc (Hons) Midwifery degree is designed with this in mind and will equip students to become skilled, knowledgeable, competent and compassionate midwives, who can provide holistic person-centred care across a range of settings.
On this varied programme you’ll develop the skills to build relationships with women, birthing people and their families, and be equipped to respond to their changing needs during pregnancy, birth and beyond.
On successfully graduating from your midwifery course at Edge Hill, you’ll be eligible to register as a qualified midwife with the Nursing and Midwifery Council.Â
Edge Hill’s Midwifery department is based within the Faculty of Health, Social Care and Medicine, one of the largest providers of health, social care and medicine education in the North West of England with some of the best facilities for health and social care students in the country. The teaching and learning resources provide leading edge clinical skills facilities and ward simulations with industry-standard equipment to give students as realistic a learning experience as possible.
The best way to experience life as a Midwifery student at Edge Hill is to visit and see the incredible facilities for yourself. Join us at one of our university open days, tours or events to find out more.
August 4, 2025