Breastfeeding Welcome

I'm a Breastfeeding Welcome ambassador for the Bromley area. Basically, I approach local venues to see if they are interested in joining a directory of places where mothers are welcome to breastfeed their children.

When I first had Kit I wasn't really prepared for breastfeeding. I knew I wanted to feed him that way myself but I didn't know anyone who had breastfed (I didn't really know anyone when they had a small child either - I'm the first of my friends to reproduce!). When I was pregnant I was so caught up in preparing for the big event (the labour) I really didn't prepare for what came after that. I just fed him, and I wasn't really sure if he was latching on properly or anything, and then the midwife told me we was jaundice and I wasn't feeding him enough (I had no idea that I should be waking him to feed if he didn't wake up) and then we ended up at A&E because I couldn't wake him up to feed. It turned out he was fine he just takes after his mum and didn't like the heat so wanted to sleep through it!

Anyway, after all of that, once I was sorted feeding him, I faced another hurdle. I wasn't really comfortable feeding my son in public. I started by planning so that I could come home to feed him, or I fed him in the toilets! I was lucky that my local shopping centre (The Glades in Bromley) has a feeding room, so I was always comfortable feeding Kit there. It took me a while to be able to start feeding him at my local cafes though, and the whole time I was feeding him I spent a lot of time in the toilets!

The thing was, I hadn't seen anyone feeding their baby in public. I wasn't likely to really, because most mothers are discrete about their feeding, and you wouldn't know that was what they were doing. Plus it wasn't really something I'd been looking out for until I had my own son. I didn't know where it was 'acceptable' to feed my son. I love the idea of the Breastfeeding Welcome scheme because it identifies places where the owners/managers have declared that they are happy for you to breastfeed in their establishments.

I know that the law now states that you have the right to breastfeed pretty much anywhere, but it being legally acceptable wouldn't have made me feel more comfortable about where I was feeding my son. I think it helps to know that the place you are feeding are happy for you to be feeding there to make you comfortable to do so.

I hope that identifying the venues in my local area who are happy for you to breastfeed will help all the breastfeeding mothers, who were shy to feed in public like I was, to step out of the toilets and enjoy the freedom of feeding their children in nicer surroundings!

The venues in my local area (Bromley) signed up so far are

The Lavender House, Sundridge Park
Belleberry Deli, Beckenham
Brodies, Bromley High Street
Bloomingdelis, Bromley High Street
Chislehurst Sandwich Cafe, Chislehurst
Cake, Downe
The Crown, Bromley Common
Taste-Bud (Love Food), Chatterton Road
Thorntons Cafe, Nugent Shopping Centre, Orpington
Mothercare, Orpington
Fired Up, Petts Wood
Roxby Hair Design, Beckenham
Taste of Cyprus, Beckenham
Risto Italian Restaurant, Beckenham

Silent Sunday

Hayes (Kent) Horticultural Society

Today we went to the Hayes Horticultural Society show.

I'm still on a mission to engage with my local area, and I'm a sucker for fruit, veg and home-baked cakes! The society put on four shows a year so we might have to pop by for their next one in November. I loved that they had a junior section, including a competition for a vehicle made out of recycling. They also had a photography competition for photos of pillarboxes!

Living Local: Bromley Pt2

So on the Sunday we were intending to travel across London for the Mad Hatter's Tea Party that was being put on by the Discover Children's Story Centre, which I'm sure would have been awesome. I saw a poster in Starbucks in Bromley for another family fun day though and thought, why not stay local.

Living Local: Bromley Pt1

We spent a rare weekend in our locality this week. I normally drag Kit across London at the weekends, or down to the South Coast to see Nanny and Grandad. We tend to spend the week in the local area, but I want to make the most of living close to the excitement of London and make the most of the mass of free events that London provides.

Mainly due to laziness, and the dread of the idea of having to carry Kit in the buggy up and down anymore stairs I persuaded my friend Maz to leave the bright lights of London Bridge and embark on a journey into the most local of my locality.