breastfeeding freindly cafe

[davide]

I own a non smoking breastfeeding freindly coffee shop in longton in stoke-on-trent. does anyone know how ican get registered with midwives etc please let me know

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What about offering a small discount to NCT members, or simply advertising in your local NCT mag? Or even writing a feature for them. Also see if you can put up an ad on the noticeboard at the baby clinic or local toyshop or wherever there are other baby-related notices. I don't think there is any official 'register' as such.

Snap!

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Hi Davide, you could also advertise in mumsnet's classifieds section for small businesses. See

small business ads If you are interested.

Rachel, Carrie and Justine

Davide. CAT me, I am North Staffs NCT secretary and run a local website for stoke mums. I'm sure Longton South SureSTart and MUM2MUM group would be interested in you too.

By the way, have you got a breastfeeding welcome sticker in your window. If not I'll send you one. Breastfeeding Awareness week is coming up in May, perhaps we could put our heads together to drum up some publicity with the Sentinel.

well done and thank you davide- second what the others have said

Hi davide,

Good luck with your marketing. I was contemplating establishing something similar near where I live in North London.

(1) Have you ever come across any sources of stats on time spent in the cafe / spend per visitor / sqft / regularity of repeat visits etc. to forecast turnover at a breast-feeding +ve / non smoking / child-friendly establishment vs. an 'ordinary' cafe ?

(2) Do you find that ability to park the car close to your premises is vital or are most clients local, arriving by foot ? (Parking is difficult / expensive at one of the premises I was considering...)

Can any MNers in London recommend any busy, overtly baby/child-friendly cafes that seem to be doing well that you love to go to ?

JulieF, regarding BF awareness week etc:

Do you know if Starbucks (or similar coffee shop chains) has a stated / stickered BF friendly rating at all its premises with seating ?

It's the sort of thing that possibly could be co-ordinated between national NCT publicity officer and a director at Starbucks (if it hasn't already been done... forgive me if I'm treading on eggshells here ).

I suppose the same could be suggested for any of the big restaurant chains from McDonalds to Pizza Hut...

I'm not aware that anything national has been done. Locally various NCT/SureStart etc groups have produced b/f friendly guides. You can order breastfeeding welcome stickers from the dept of health as part of their BAW publicity and some groups have gone round local cafes/shops etc and asked them to display them. They then sometimes produce a guide for local mums which lists all these places. A local branch of McDonalds displays a sticker.

Its a great idea to do it on a National level and could be great publicity for a national chain like starbucks. I guess it would need someone with contacts to set up.

Get your local breastfeeding mums group in (ask the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers) and get a pic for the local press as part of Breastfeeding Awareness Day - make a press release about how important it is for breastfeeding mums to be acceptable in public - instant half-page spread in your local 'pensioner falls off bike' press.

Co-ordinating at national level is obviously extremely efficient if it can be made to happen.

I'm not sure how Starbucks operates: franchise / company owned / manager owned etc. (any MNers know ?) but the aim would be to wangle a meet with the right person at Starbucks head office, and get a mailshot from HQ to all their coffee shops with 'BF friendly' stickers.

Nothing wrong with grass-roots knocking on the door though !

Aside from supporting breast feeding per se, it might also be appropriate to brainstorm how supporting it has other benefits for these corporations (longer stays / bring a friend /part of daily or weekend routine etc.) as it would undoubtedly make the decision easier for them.