Breastfeeding-Friendly Venues

As a business you can play a vital role in helping women feel comfortable feeding their babies out and about. Not only are you supporting a baby to get the best start in life but also helping to normalise breastfeeding for your whole community.

Customer Care and Equality Act

Welcoming and supporting mums in your venue demonstrates how much you care about your customers, encouraging women and their families to visit again, as well as making sure you comply with the Equality Act that has protected a woman’s right to breastfeed her child in public since 2010.

You could:

  • Give a welcoming smile, perhaps find her a comfortable seat with space for her buggy if she needs it, offer her a glass of water or bring her drink over to her
  • Train your employees to be aware of a women’s right to breastfeed in public
  • As a business, you have a responsibility to protect breastfeeding women from other customers who may display negative behaviour towards feeding
  • Familiarise yourself with the Equality Act to accommodate breastfeeding employees and follow best practice guidelines
  • Follow the Beside You Facebook and Instagram accounts, and let women in Medway know that they are welcome to breastfeed at your venue
  • Display a Beside You window sticker or poster to show all customers that you support breastfeeding mothers.

There are lots of great businesses in Medway ready to welcome breastfeeding families.  If you would like to join them please email us ifp@medway.gov.uk.

We’ll pop by with a Beside You window sticker, posters, our breastfeeding welcome toolkit and will add to our interactive map as a breastfeeding friendly venue.

See which businesses have already signed up over on our interactive map.

Arriva bus and worker

"Medway's Public Transport team with all bus operators are committed to welcoming all passengers on board creating a favourable environment. We hope this will help breastfeeding mothers to feel comfortable on our buses or at Chatham Waterfront Bus Station."

Beside You venue window sticker

Show your support

You can get a Beside You breastfeeding welcome window sticker and poster via email. Take a photo of the sticker in your window, tag us on social media and we’ll share with our followers.

Email us for your breastfeeding venue support pack