'Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or clinic.'

The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative based on these 'Ten steps' was launched in 1992. An assessment system has been developed to inspect maternity homes on the basis of these ten steps. The maternity homes passing the assessment are granted ' BABY FRIENDLY HOSPITAL CERTIFICATE '. Many maternity homes in India have already acquired this certificate. To the best of our knowledge the tenth step of mother support was always neglected in India & BFHI certifications were done without fulfillment of this step. Hence we felt that many of the certified maternity homes could not maintain their baby friendly status. In the absence of a system to reassess the certified maternity homes, the tenth step should be made compulsory prior to certification.

We realized that neglect of this step arose out of difficulties in starting MSG in India. We also realised the importance of tenth step to achieve & maintain BFHI status of maternity homes. It was on this background that Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI) Maharashtra State Branch' in collaboration with 'Association for Consumer Action on Safety & Health(ACASH)' & with support from UNICEF (Mumbai Office) initiated 'Mother Support Group Project' in 1995. The project was started in North-West Mumbai with 1 MSG Leaders & 1 maternity home. It was planned to start maternity home based MSG with subsequent extension in the community. The project now has 30 certified mother support group leaders & provides service to 33 maternity homes in & around North-West Mumbai. Apart from covering maternity homes MSG Leaders carry out a spectrum of activities in the surrounding community for protection, promotion & support of breastfeeding. Satellite MSG activity has started in Amravati. The process has been initiated in Pune & Dombivali.