Help us create a breastfeeding map of the UK

[KateSMumsnet]

Breastfeeding hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons again this week, after news broke of a mother being asked to leave a branch of Sports Direct after she breastfed her baby there. It's hugely important, of course, that we all pick up on stories such as this, and offer support to mothers who are made to feel embarrassed or uncomfortable about feeding their children when they're out and about - but at times it can feel like playing catch-up.

It seemed to us that we could take this opportunity to change the rules of the game, and start celebrating those places - and companies - that make feeding on the move easy and enjoyable. So we decided to start a thread asking you to tell us about your favourite places to feed your DC in public.

Whether it's a park bench overlooking a nice duck pond or a particularly cosy corner of a cafe, we'd love to see your pictures of your tried-and-tested spots to feed your little ones. Please add them to this thread, along with their location - if we have enough submissions, what we'd really like to do is create a breastfeeding map of the UK, featuring great feeding spots up and down the country.

We've a page full of tips and advice on how to breastfeed in public, please do add any other pearls of wisdom you'd like to share below. If you want to chat about places to breastfeed in your area, why not start a thread in your Mumsnet Local site, or add a venue you love as a listing?

I also fed at the kidz play soft play at the mall cribbs causeway and the only complaint made by one of the staff was annoyance at not being able to cuddle the baby cos I was feeding

IKEA Nottingham. DD was about 8 weeks old and I was very nervous about feeding her in public for the first time. I asked a staff member on arrival where/if I could feed and she said "you can do it anywhere, our home is your home, if you see a room set you like then plonk yourself down, or we have a feeding area in the cafe." I opted for the feeding area and had a nice chat with the family sitting next to it while DD got on with it!

Another vote for Costa. Fed in 2 branches, Nottingham Listergate and Bingham. Staff bring your order over and spring over to hold the door open for buggies.

Yet another vote for Costa and John Lewis. Also my sister was treated really nicely in Pizza Express Leamington Spa. I've luckily had no negative comments (lucky for the commenter as I've got lots of PO anger built up at stories like the Sports Direct one)

I feed my daughter everywhere locally and have never had any problems.
Ones I go to often are

Camberley Theatre
Costa Camberley
M&S Cafe, The Meadows, Camberley
Next Cafe, The Meadows, Camberley
The Areana leisure centre, Camberley (after swimming)

I've never had any negative feedback and I live in Cumbria.
Best places seem to be debenhams in Workington, Her Citi in Maryport and Coffee kitchen in cockermouth. All really helpful. When travelling, I like travelling with Virgin trains as they are ways happy to help x

IKEA Leeds.

Lots of nice places to sit, feeding area if you want it or just use the cafe. The staff are ace and I felt very welcome.

Actually I think the cafe in Next is a Costa. Costa were brilliant, both times they could see I had my hands full and brought my order over to the table.

InspirationFailed those are beautiful pictures :)

John lewis Leicester is fab the feeding too itself is always nice and clean. The cafe in JL too is good there is a lot of people feeding there so I think that makes you feel comfortable when starting out!
I fed dd in most of the country parks in the area and the botanical gardens are a nice peaceful place to feed as there are no dogs running around :)

The British Museum (in the central covered courtyard in a quiet corner, by the Viking longboat and in the Eldorado exhibition).

The V&A in the Raphael Cartoons room, warm, enormous and gently lit. I strongly recommend, especially on rainy days.

London Transport Museum, in their reconstructed tube station during the war. Excellent baby room too!

ooh, I didn't like feeding in the British museum at all - I found the Great Court to be really cold, with no seats that had backs to them, and it was so noisy DD kept pulling off for a look around!

Natural History Museum.

A little farm thing in Hainault Forest.

The Pencil Museum (Keswick) which was a bit random a place to end up.

Its a while since I was bfing, and in this area I was bfing a toddler. Places that I know welcome bfing mums and will bring jugs of water, drinks etc are Charlies cafe in Worcester (who also get a big up for their gf, df, vegan and veggie food) and The Fold at Bransford

Have never felt uncomfortable feeding anywhere (apart from a bit nervous sometimes at potential boob flashage when DD got nosy).

M&S and JL cafes have always been nice places to feed with a cup of tea and a cake.

Mothercare in Plymouth have a feeding room thats ok but I got bored being sat in there so only used it once and stuck to cafes after that but its nice that they provide the facility.

Agree with posters above that breastfeeding should be a complete non-issue, hoping this day will come eventually.

Also, very glad to see that Sports Direct are getting a suitable goading on their facebook page. Interesting that no comment has been made in response though....

This was the most beautiful view I ever had while breastfeeding - sheltering in a beach tent on Samson in the Isles of Scilly! A bit remote to be much help though, sorry.

The top of Parliament Hill in Hampstead Heath, and under the Thames on the dlr. Various trains, pubs all over London and the students' union at my university. All great.

John Lewis Cambridge - cafe & family room

Everywhere really - I never had any issues bf three dc wherever I felt like it - apart from once in Tesco café where an old guy was perving.

Particular establishments that I thought were good were: Ikea Croydon - a nice little partitioned off bit in the main restaurant with sofas and cushions and John Lewis (Bluewater and Kingston) - reasonably nice feeding rooms.

I was confident feeding anywhere with the first 2 but my third had reflux so it was more of a performance and he used to pull on and off so I really appreciated these 2 place where I wasn't concerned about flashing my boobs.

Anywhere and everywhere - park benches, cafes, restaurants - never had an issue. Particularly nice would be mother and baby screenings at the Ritzy in Brixton, and Mamas and Papas stores are good as they have their nursing chairs which are v comfortable (to encourage you to buy one, no doubt...)

Ikea Croydon were always very accommodating. I used their sofas many a time and the staff even brought me a cuppa once!

Chapters cafe next to the library in Epsom, and the library itself were great too.

Greenwich is really good - anywhere in the park, the cafe areas in the National Maritime Museum, any cafe there for that matter.
Parent rooms at Stratford Westfield especially if you have an older dc as they have a mini play area where they can entertain themselves safely while you feed.

I was the only person I knew breast feeding in the early 80s in Plymouth.
I went out of my way to be as discreet as possible, but the place I got loads of stares and negative comments was toddler group.

A remark I remember is ' Oh it's okay, it's just we all think you're weird.'
DS was only a few weeks old, not about to start school or anything possibly controversial.
I was new to the area and hoping to make friends. They didn't make friends with me.

To me it seems things have improved a lot.

@ThePassionOfHoneydragon

the sensible person in me thinks

Why the fuck should we need a breast feeding friendly map? Any location that has both boobs and babies in it should be a breast feeding friendly location.

Your local Costa could be great one week then employ a total fart face the next who decides to do their level best to make someone feel uncomfortable.

A much better idea would be reminding society that babies often need a lot of immediate care and attention. And allowing Mum (if boobs are required) or Dad (if boobs are not needed) to get on without without issue shouldn't be a problem for anyone. Sometimes they cry loudly when everyone is quiet too. People seem to think babies need to be parented in public rather than nurtured, and that sucks.

You're right of course, ThePassionOfHoneydragon - we should be able to feed wherever and whenever's needed, and fwiw I can only remember a couple of occasions that I ever felt uncomfortable when I was out and about feeding DS. The idea was more, though (and perhaps we need to tweak the OP to reflect this) that breastfeeding in public's only ever talked about when it becomes a problem, and it'd be nice for once to discuss the pleasures and positives of it, rather than the times when it goes wrong.

The idea actually came from a trip I took to San Francisco in a previous work incarnation. I went to visit Dave Eggers' Pirate Store (yes, has one ) at the front of which is a great big fish tank, with a chair in front of it, screened off by a velvet curtain. The woman who was showing me around told me that "it's a really popular place for women to stop off and breastfeed", and I thought: how lovely. So we figured it'd be an equally lovely thing to round up those places in the UK - not just the convenient ones, but the ones where you actively enjoy stopping off and feeding. Hope that makes sense!

My LO isn't due until September, but have friends have breastfed pretty much everywhere in and around weymouth. Especially Weymouth Costa and also a little cafe called The Palm House which has a kids play area for children aged up to 5 and they also bring drinks and food over too x

Williams & Griffin in colchester has a lovely change room with comfy chair and curtain to pull across if you want.
Whole store is breast feeding friendly.