Let's Start a BF Friendly Places List

[Chocolateporridge]

I've scoured the site and can't find this, but if it's already in place then I'm sure someone will let me know!

I breastfeed in public but I really do feel uncomfortable even though here in Scotland it's covered by law. I would feel much more comfortable about going out and about if there were some kind of online list I could check before I go out where other mum's recommend places (town by town) that are breastfeeding friendly and rate the facilities.

If anyone knows of any good places in Glasgow city centre I'd love to hear and then maybe other mums could add their town and recommendations?

Thanks :)

Hi!

Sorry I cant add anything to this thread yet, DS is 4 weeks and I am still in the PJ in the house stage! But I would love to read recommendations for the Newcastle area if anyone has any.

Great idea for a thread

Chocolate don't know of any places in Glasgow sorry as I'm not from there. I think the reason this site doesn't have the list you want is because everywhere is breastfeeding friendly. With my 2 DC I've fed in lots of places and never had a bad reaction.

Please just make yourself comfortable and feed your baby

Oh, and you could ask on Mumsnet Local or at your local Breastfeeding Support Group for a couple of recommendations if you still feel the need.

Chocolateporridge - I'm not in the west, but a few places in Edinburgh spring to mind if you ever come through.

John Lewis - good baby room, but lots of mums BF in the cafe (top floor) too, it's the place to be! I think there's a JL in Buchanan Galleries too, worth a try there

Reds cafe, Portobello - children friendly cafe, loads of mums there, also have highchairs, kids portions on the menu, soft play area for when kids are bigger/meeting friends with older kids

I agree with Jilted - people actively making mothers feel uncomfortable are rare in my experience and everywhere should by default be bf-ing friendly. Places that make the mistake of being bf-ing unfriendly should get flak for it.

However, I can see that some places are easier and more comfortable to feed in than others. Cafes with comfy chairs are nicer than McDonalds for example. And when your baby is very tiny and you are still practicing latch and positioning it can be nice to have a bit of privacy. At that point I found the feeding rooms in John Lewis and my local shopping mall were quite good. Mothercare usually have feeding rooms but these vary in terms of comfort quite a bit.

But you should feel confident that you can feed your baby wherever is convenient. In 10m of bf-ing I've only had a negative response once and it was handled so well it was almost worth it. I was feeding DD (9m at that point) in a small cafe when a middle-aged woman came in and sat down at a table quite a way from mine. She looked at me and after giving her order to the waitress she told her that 'I don't feel comfortable with that lady feeding over there.' The waitress who can't have been more than 18 looked at her as if she was totally mad and said 'Oh' and walked off. She didn't say anything further and I didn't have to say anything at all.

Like others who have posted, my DW breastfeeds wherever she likes and has never had a negative comment. More useful would be a thread on places with good changing facilities.

Check your local NCT branch - mine did a list last year.

John Lewis in Reading is great for the early days as you can retreat to their (huge and ell set-up) family room if you can't cope with bfing in the cafe.

I've fed in loads of places with no issues. Comfy chairs and waiting staff really help IME - I've been stuck in Costa with nothing to eat/drink a couple of times when DD was cluster feeding and I didn't manage to leave after finishing my 1 coffee!

Thanks theborrower, I'm going to try John Lewis in Glasgow tomorrow then :)

Jilted, nocake and veronica, I've been breastfeeding for 5 months and never had a negative comment or been made to feel bad, however not all of us are brave enough or comfortable enough to do it in public, or would just prefer somewhere quiet and comfy, especially if your baby has reflux like mine and screams and pops off alot - it tends to make people turn round at the very moment when everything is on display!

Also nocake, most places that have good BF facilities will have good baby changing facilities so it can be a dual purpose list :)

I'll post tomorrow about where I find in Glasgow :)

It would be really great if us slightly shyer mumsnetters keep this list going though

I appreciate your point about the head-bobbing! DD has no regard for my privacy whatsoever.

However, what you are asking for are places where you can breastfeed with some degree of privacy when out and about. Which is not the same thing as breast-feeding friendly. Some of us would find it actively unfriendly if we were directed towards places where we could breastfeed in private, rather than being encouraged to feed wherever is most convenient.

That said I agree a list of places in major towns where you can get a comfy chair and some privacy would probably be pretty useful, particularly for mothers wanting to feed in public for the first time.

So in Derby I'd say...
The family rooms at the Westfield Centre are good but can be very noisy and busy at weekends.
The Strand cafe is very friendly and they bring your order to you which is helpful. It doesn't offer great privacy but you can get tables where other people would be really having to look hard to see anything!
For privacy the cafe in Bennetts is probably your best bet. You can often get the area right at the back entirely to yourself and there is also waitress service.

In Nottingham...
John Lewis has a family room on the top floor. And the cafe has some quiet corners where privacy is possible. They are also happy for you to use the rocking chairs on display in the childrens dept which are very comfy but not private at all!
Broadway cinema and the Malt Cross are also good with lots of space. And they are often quite quiet in the daytime.

I know what you're saying about being able to breastfeed whereever you like, and certainly it's against the law (in Scotland at least) to prevent a mother feeding her baby (applies to FF too) but certainly when I was BFing (and having difficulties, so wanted to be as comfy and unassuming as possible) there were places I felt more comfortable to do so - that's how I read 'breastfeeding friendly' in chocolate's post. Places with comfy chairs that are nicely spaced apart, places where lots of mums frequent so you feel a bit more relaxed than you may be if you were surrounded by lots of trendy young 15 year olds, a decent changing room and sometimes somewhere to get some peace if baby is squirming or fussing and flashing your nips were important to me.

Wagamamas in Norwich have been very supportive, threw out a middle aged couple who complained about someone breastfeeding.

Libraries are good, IMO, as are most public benches - no-one takes any notice. Our library service (Herts) has an official pro-breastfeeding in the library policy (which covers toddlers as well as babies). :)

But IMO anywhere with a seat backing onto a wall or a decent backed chair works well - I get a bit twitchy if my back is to a plate glass window.

Bluewater in Kent is good - feeding rooms with locks & changing facilities, plus the loos are large & have comfy benches, so if you just want somewhere quiet with only ladies around, as opposed to total privacy, that works well...

Most Carluccios that I've been to are good too. They have banquettes along at least one wall where you can get comfy & staff tend not to bat an eyelid.

I have to say I always blithely thought I didn't need feeding rooms, I would just feed DS in public wherever he needed to feed, and I did so. However since he turned 6 months or so it has just been impossible to feed him out and about unless in a very quiet boring room - I can see the point of feeding rooms now and I wish there were more of them!

Costa Coffee is well known as being BFing friendly. I was in the branch in Highgate recently and pretty much every woman in there was breastfeeding.

Ikea have a nice private area with a big comfy chair, near the cafe. Trafford centre has feeding rooms with every set of toilets, some are better than others, also John Lewis and Debenhams.

Checking in for Oxford: the local ice-cream café chain G&D's is very bf-friendly, though I've only really used the one on Cowley Road, which as two big sofas and very friendly supportive staff. The sofa at the back of the cafe is reasonably private & secluded, though not as much as if it were a dedicated feeding area I suppose.

Whole food cafe The Magic Café on Magdalen Road is baby-friendly with a lot of parents who go there, and pub The Isis at Iffkey Lock is also very cool about bf, though without that much privacy / seclusion.

Hi, try the CCA on Sauchiehall St, it's quite an open space but it's comfy and a right-on arts venue so no-one bats an eyelid. Cafe Gandolfi in the Merchant city is delightful, they all adore kids and I was given a free bib last time I was there. If you want to go a bit west, near Kelvingrove museum (I've not been to the museum cafe yet but hear it's mum central) is Montgomery's on Radnor St or Beanscene just opp the museum, both have a very chilled vibe.
I've fed my 3 month old in all of the above as well as JL (of course).

HTH

Agree with Veronica, the original question and what you actually want don't match. Can appreciate that with the screaming and headbobbing you need somewhere more private, which is different than bfing friendly. Have you thought about starting a thread asking where there are feeding rooms in Glasgow, or maybe contact your local Surestart Centre, LLL or NCT to see if they have details.

Veronica love the waitress, she's a star

Sorry if I didn't word my initial post clearly enough :) That's what lack of sleep does to you eh?! What I was hoping for would be that mumsnetters would share the places that they've breastfed with other mums and rate them. It's not always convenient to go into a cafe, buy a drink and then feed the baby, sometimes you just want somewhere you can plonk down and feed, and not all of us feel comfortable (for whatever reason) doing this in public places.

Thanks so much fountainpen for those tips. I braved the sleety weather today and ventured up to Sauchiehall Street (Glasgow) and tried the following places:

Starbucks (Sauchiehall St): Quite small for getting a buggy in but comfy chairs. No baby change facilities and I was carefully watched by a tramp (nursing an empty mug) who seemed to walk by my chair every time I popped a boob out but that's not Starbucks' fault!!!!

Mothercare (Sauchiehall St): Fantastic big baby change room and a lovely seperate low-lit room with big armchairs for breast feeding. No down sides that I could see!

Marks & Spencer's (Sauchiehall St): Not a very nice little changing room. Has a chair in it but pretty tatty and not too clean - ok if you're desperate! Has a cafe right next to it though so you could feed there.

Cafe Nero (Sauchiehall Street): Comfy chairs and nice atmosphere - plenty of room for pram. Didn't check out toilets though, so not sure about baby change.

Strangely enough my mum was at the Dental Hospital on Sauchiehall Street today and said they have a cafe and a seperate nursing room too.

Hope these help someone but would love to know what other places are like.

I live in Clydebank myself and have tried:

Asda: Big baby change room with a chair for feeding but has a toilet in there too (not in a cubicle) and is a bit whiffy.

Clyde Shopping Centre: feeding room half way down shopping centre (by BHS cafe) has everything you'd need in it, including two chairs. Down side is that you have to hunt down an attendant for a key, the room is tiny so only one pram can fit in and it's pretty chilly too, but lovely, modern and clean.

Keep your recommendations coming :)

Hi Chocolate

I really hope you don't think I was trying to be critical of your post. I really wasn't, and I certainly think if privacy is what you want then that is what you should have!

But before I had DD I naively assumed that bf-ing in public was routinely frowned upon and that I would just have to develop a thick skin in order to cope. It has been a really pleasant surprise that I haven't had to be thick-skinned at all and so I get a bit evangelical about saying to people 'honestly you probably won't have any problems'.

But there are obviously loads of reasons why privacy and a bit of quiet can be a good thing especially when your baby becomes really distractible and they have nothing to do with fearing comments from weirdos. I'm sorry I didn't think about that clearly enough when I replied initially.

Chocolate hope you don't think I was being critical either, like Veronica says, many people require privacy for many reasons and that is exactly what you should have, if you want it.

When I was pregnant with DC1 I read in a book, written by a man obviously, that if I was bfing in public I should cover up the baby under a blanket. If I read that now I'd probably think "tosser" but at the time I took it to heart. First time I fed DS was in a coffee shop on a boiling hot day and covered him with a blanket. A lovely old waitress came to me and said "don't cover him up dear, nobody minds you feeding in here, and anyway if you cover him up you won't be able to see your beautiful baby. You come and feed in here anytime you like". I could have cried, she was so lovely.

chocolateporridge - sounds like you had a busy day! Will keep your recommendations in mind for a Glasgow based friend who is due soon.

jiltedjohnsjulie - lovely story :)

Aw thanks veronica and Jiltedjohns - don't worry about it - I just want to make life easier for everyone and I loved your coffee shop story jilted!!! I really hope other mums can benefit from this thread. Our local health board issue a brochure with a list of places that have rooms available to breast feed in but it's WAY out of date, which is frustrating when you turn up at a place ready to feed and there's nowhere available - including our local health centre, which I think is appalling :(