It's important to us that mothers feel comfortable breastfeeding outside the home, and this is where you come in.
By making your venue breastfeeding-friendly, you're helping us to support mothers in Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland. It's good for your business too!
Benefits for your business
- If customers feel welcome, they'll be more likely to stay longer and spend more money.
- Breastfeeding mothers are likely to keep going back to venues where they feel comfortable, as well as recommending them to family, friends, and other mums.
- Improved customer service - the national Breastfeeding Welcome scheme found that staff who are trained to support breastfeeding mothers were more likely to apply their training to all customers.
- Good publicity for your business.
- Attracting new customers.
What you need to do
We ask that all Welcome to Breastfeed venues:
- Have a friendly, warm, and welcoming attitude
- Offer a comfortable space for breastfeeding. It does not need to be a separate room, but it should never be a toilet. You would not choose to eat in a toilet, so a mother should not have to breastfeed in there.
- Offer a glass of water to mothers. Breastfeeding can make women thirsty.
- Offer to help mothers carry food and drink to their table. It's hard to juggle a hungry baby, find a free table, and carry a tray.
- Tell mothers where the nearest baby changing facilities are, if there are none on the premises.
- Treat breastfeeding mothers the same way you would treat any other customer.
- Consider writing a breastfeeding policy for your venue, including mandatory staff training on breastfeeding.
- Support your staff to deal with negative comments about breastfeeding from other customers.
We also ask that you:
- Show the same friendly, warm, and welcoming attitude to parents who are bottle feeding.
- Agree to warm or cool a bottle of milk if you have the facilities.
When you sign up, you'll need to agree that you will do all of these things.
How to sign up
You'll need to agree to the following points to sign up.
- Babies can be breastfed in any public area within your venue.
- A breastfeeding mother will not be asked to move to another area or asked to stop breastfeeding in your venue.
- You have a welcoming atmosphere.
- All your staff will be aware of the scheme and offer support to meet breastfeeding mothers' needs.
- You have adopted the sample breastfeeding policy as a minimum standard and your staff are aware of how to implement this policy.
- You and your staff will respond sensitively if inappropriate comments are made about breastfeeding.
- The public will be made aware that your venue is part of the award scheme. This will be through the display of promotional material and by the venue being listed on the online directory.
- You understand that some women prefer privacy when breastfeeding and will do all you can to help them.
- Your venue will agree to be reviewed by local breastfeeding mothers.
- Your venue will make sure that their staff are supported if they are breastfeeding while in employment.
Could your venue offer a private space or room?
You do not need this to be part of the scheme, but if it's something you can offer, that's great.
Most mothers just want a clean and comfortable place to sit. Could you adapt a corner of your venue to feel more private by using a bookcase or potted plants? Ideally it should be close to the toilets, but not in them. Also, not a baby changing room, as dads or partners may go in there.
If you can offer a private area, will it be a room:
- which is clean, warm, and comfortable?
- which is available all of the time for breastfeeding mothers?
- which is close to a toilet with baby changing facilities (but not inside it)?
- which could offer water to mothers, either from the tap or in a glass provided by the venue?
Once you've agreed to everything in the checklist, you'll need to complete the pledge to sign up to the scheme. Thank you for helping us to normalise breastfeeding and support mothers in the South Tees area!