The Centro de Especialidades Sur (CES)-Hospital Snopek in Alto Comedero is advancing efforts to become certified as a “Mother and Child Friendly Hospital,” with a focus on promoting exclusive breastfeeding and comprehensive care for newborns.
Claudia Castro, provincial director of Maternity, Childhood, and Adolescence, explained the initiative’s significance. “Within the Strategic Health Plan in its second stage, we are fulfilling the promotion of health based on the fundamental pillar that is birth, comprehensive support, and the opportunity for exclusive breastfeeding if possible up to 6 months of life or having tools that allow it to be sustained such as extraction for feeding the baby,” said Castro.
She emphasized that all departments at CES-Hospital Snopek are engaged in this effort. “All services are committed to this strategy across the entire institution—of course Maternity and Nutrition but also Administration, Patient Management, Security, and each area,” she stated.
Castro noted ongoing preparations ahead of an evaluation by national authorities and UNICEF scheduled from November 10 to 12. “This team has spent many months preparing and is about to undergo its first evaluation by Nation and UNICEF,” she said. She highlighted recent investments: “Materials and equipment continue to be added such as electric breast pumps recently delivered—some donated by UNICEF and some acquired by the Ministry of Health—as training continues along with strengthening protocols and meeting requirements for this accreditation.”
Following regulatory changes in 2020 limiting eligibility for certification only to hospitals with essential obstetric and neonatal conditions (CONE), Castro remarked on CES-Hospital Snopek’s progress. “Hospital Snopek would be the first in the province to achieve this quality—a true achievement for Jujuy’s public health system,” she concluded.
