Final answer:
The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative sponsored by UNICEF primarily aims to promote breastfeeding to improve infant nutrition and contribute to better maternal and infant health outcomes.
Step-by-step explanation:
The main goal of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative sponsored by UNICEF was b) Promoting breastfeeding. This initiative has aimed to support and encourage breastfeeding as a critical aspect of enhancing infant nutrition and improving infant and maternal health outcomes. The program addresses various steps that hospitals and maternity units can implement to create an environment that supports breastfeeding mothers and ensures that newborns receive the numerous health benefits of receiving breast milk, particularly the early milk called colostrum, which is essential to help boost the newborn's immune system.
As part of broader health concerns, breastfeeding promotion works alongside efforts to reduce child mortality rates and improve maternal health services. The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative aligns with historical efforts such as the Sheppard-Towner Act for well-baby clinics and the educational programs of the 1920s as well as modern mobile technology use for healthcare access that to some extent help in reducing infant mortality by enabling quicker medical responses when needed.
The benefits of breastfeeding and the support of initiatives like the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative are integral to striving towards goals such as those set by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the Millennium Development Goals, which include the reduction of child mortality and improvement of maternal health.