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?

London. Pretty much wherever I was at the time. Never had any derogatory remarks apart from my hairdresser, who went on to say he had been bf until he was 2!

Found a new one a month later. Sod him!

Everywhere! I haven't yet had a bad experience in the 8 months I've been breast feeding.
The photo attached was taken in Queens Park in Heywood, Manchester a few days after LO was born. But this week I've fed on Formby Beach, at In Touch cafe in Appley Bridge in Lancashire, at a Harvester Restaurant, at Feel Good Cafe in Rochdale, at Stables Cafe at Haigh Hall in Wigan, and finally in my parish church during Mass!!
I don't really have a favourite place to feed, so long as its warm, welcoming and comfy. x

Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge has a number of feeding rooms with very comfy chairs. I've bf two children and only ever had one person coming up to me to comment (Sainsbury's cafe), and that was positive.

Lots of different churches - not because I'm religious but because you can just walk in, they're often empty and you can find a quiet pew where no-one will bother you!

I've never been made to feel uncomfortable but I was particularly impressed with the waitress in Pizza Express in Solihull who, when she noticed I was bf, offered to cut my pizza up for me so I could eat one-handed.

Everyone seems to recommend JL. I hope they hurry up and finish building the one in my city so I can try this experience out with DC2 due later this year.

Hastings and st leonards has its own breast feeding directory which is full of local places mostly shops and cafes who have agreed to support mothers while breastfeeding. Can't name them all on here there are too many!

Exeter:

Cafe at Sainsburys Alphington Road.

Big screen at Exeter Picturehouse on Mondays for Big Scream (sofas at the back!).

On a bench in Haldon Forest.

It's definitely true that you don't get a second glance down here in Devon - loads of people BF and no-one bars an eyelid. My sister lives near Birmingham and she felt really self-conscious feeding in public so bottle fed in public. People seem to bottle feed more than BF there.

All three Costa coffee shops in Northallerton, and the Cafe Nero too.
I'm guessing they've had specific training to be super helpful (not just to me with toddler and baby but to anyone who might need a hand)

Never had anything but good comments either from other people in North Yorks.

I've never had any negative responses in over 2.5 years of breastfeeding my two children. I've breastfed them in various places in Scotland and England as well as abroad.

I've breastfed in countless cafés, restaurants, parks, trains, planes, pubs, libraries, on benches and while walking around town when LO was small and light enough for it!

A particularly enjoyable one was while watching the Highland Games in Aboyne - mainly because I could sit back and enjoy the entertainment. Beats any feeding room ??

The memorial gardens in Kingston. Lots of nice shady benches.

Just been out to Coalport China museum today. There are lots of chairs and benches scattered around but I particularly liked the comfy chairs in the Children's Gallery where DS fed whilst DD enjoyed dressing up and colouring in.

I can also recommend the Pleasure Gardens at Blists Hill, and the verandah outside the Doctor's House at Blists Hill.

Came on to say Costa! I practically lived in there with DD1. I have breastfed all over Bristol and never had a negative comment. The only comment I have had was a "well done" from the man I sat next to in the busy IKEA restaurant. There's a really lovely feeding room in Mothercare, Eastgate Retail Park. It's separate from the baby changing facilities. Also used to use the feeding rooms in Cabot Circus (tip - go upstairs, they're always empty) but they were sparkly and new for DD1 and a bit tatty now for DD2.The Watershed is also fab with the baby cinema screenings. I have lovely memories of feeding DD1 on Clifton Downs.

The Climbing Station, Loughborough

I've not had any negative comments (bar a couple of idiot family members in my own home) and have fed anywhere dd has needed a feed (including walking down the street with her in a sling, parks, beach, a field, openly in lots of coffee shops). Favourite places: infinity cafe, brighton (no-one bats an eyelid if you have your whole naked boob out, which is a big plus when you have a very nosey babe in arms) and the Dove cafe in Hassocks, when DD was tiny the lovely owner talked to me for an hour and offered to bring me a glass of water as soon as I started to feed. Lovely.

Mothercare in Forster square retail park Bradford is my favorite place to breast feed as they have a nursing room with a rocking chair and a settee so there's somewhere for the kids to sit too if I'm in town with them.

Also I was in Babycare on Bolton road today when my little girl decided she wanted a feed and they were very helpful and got a chair out for me to sit in while I fed her :)

I've fed DS anywhere & everywhere in the last 3 months. I love feeding him at the Big Scream showing at the Picturehouse cinema in Southampton as the chairs recline & are so comfy. Got congratulated for feeding in Gosport Cricket clubhouse the other day & al fresco outside La Tasca in Gunwharf & love that as it makes you feel so supported.
I used to use a ring sling to support his weight but now he's bigger he can sit on my lap & reach iyswim.

Was a bit disappointed that the baby care room at Paulton's Park had a microwave, changing stations & toilets but no comfy chairs or feeding area. I fed in their restaurant instead but not particularly comfortable. There may be better facilities in Peppa Pig World but didn't see any in main park.

I've never used a feeding room, mainly because all of the ones I've seen have been located next to or in the baby changing room so they stink of nappies, and I hate sitting in windowless rooms. The feeding 'room' upstairs in M&S in Newcastle city centre is literally in a toilet cubicle in the baby changing room. There are two cubicles attached to one another with a gap at the top and bottom of the wall between them. One cubicle has a toilet in, the other has an armchair for feeding in. I'm guessing it's so that me and my baby can listen to the person next door shitting while we feed? The feeding room in Fenwicks is not much better, a padded bench style seat in the changing room. The one downstairs in Eldon Square, next door to Waitrose, is a couple of very uncomfortable armchairs in the changing room. Even the John Lewis one is a curtained area within the baby change/toddler toilet area (or at least it was last time I was in there). I don't want to sit in a pseudo-toilet to feed my baby, it makes me feel queasy and grubby.

I have another vote for Costa. Every branch I've been to has been great and from reading the thread it seems to be a universal thing, makes me wonder if their staff receive training. The staff are friendly, they carry the drinks over when they can see you've got a pushchair and there's no pressure to drink up and get out. I went to the one on Northumberland Street in Newcastle city centre and they asked if I wanted my toaster straight away or if I wanted to give them a shout to make it once I'd finished feeding "so it'll be nice and warm". They carried my drink over. They said hello to my 2yo (which seems like a non-thing but she's been feeling a bit invisible as everyone wants to coo over the new baby so acknowledging her was great). When it was time to go a member of staff rushed over to hold the door open for the buggy. The two branches in the RVI hospital are just as good and so is the one in Whitley Bay.

Sainsburys cafe at Cramlington are good too. They carry the food over and, when I realised sauces and cutlery were on a stand in the corner, went and got me the stuff I needed. Again, they acknowledged DD and gave her the number on a stick to carry "because you're such a big girl".

Organic House cafe, White Lion pub and Stubbins Wharf pub Hebden Bridge

Rochdale library

Home Sweet Home cafe Manchester
Costa Albert Square Manchester
Manchester Art Gallery

Rebecca's cafe Littleborough
Hollingworth Lake, any of the benches overlooking the lake.

I feed dd wherever she needs to be fed but these places have been really welcoming and helpful, bringing jugs or glasses of water (a glass with a straw so I could reach my drink) offering to help me move the pram or hold the baby and just generally being friendly and nice to a knackered mum!

No, no, no. I know this is supposed to be well intended but when you start drawing up a map of where is good to breastfeed, it also implies that ONLY those places are good to feed.

More efforts should instead be placed on ensuring that everyone is aware that you can breastfeed ANYWHERE and it is your legal right.

The walled garden where our allotment is, near shefford in Bedfordshire. Also, by the river Ouse in York.

This is a fantastic thread. I am a shy bf mum and don't like to do in public. However, there are some family places I would like to shame for not supporting bf mums...

Centre parcs! Cotswold wildlife park. Both of these are squarely aimed at young families, and yet there is nowhere to feed your baby in private if you aren't a public feeder (lots of us bf mums aren't) and I think that is shocking.

John lewis is brilliant, Costa is great and generally really good, although I would lie, to shame abingdon branch in oxfordshire.

I really would like some more discreet bf places that are orientated to families. Step up please!

Darlington library. Nice and warm, friendly, comfy chairs and when DD has finished she can pick a book! Plus if she nods off on the boob I can catch up on my reading.

I reckon I spent half her babyhood in there

Prima restaurant, Costa, Sainsburys cafe,(Huntington) staff always offer to bring a drink over
library Huntington Cambs snuggled with the soft toys, Hinchinbrooke park (when the weathers good) Hunts Ciniworld in the foyer & in the cinema. Peterborough John Lewis Cafe & M&S cafe various Peterborough costas, was complimented for BF in Peterborough ASDA. Not one negative remark I try to be discreet