Gedling Borough’s first official breastfeeding-friendly cafe is opening its second outlet in Beeston.
The Milk Lounge, which is designed to make the lives of parents and families with young children easier, will open its new store in Chilwell Road, Beeston, by the end of April.
The family-friendly business opened its first cafe in Arnold last year, and was the first to be approved as ‘breast feeding-friendly’ by a Gedling Borough Council scheme.
In January it was revealed that the city of Nottingham has a higher rate of mums successfully breastfeeding their babies than the UK or national average.
Figures released by Nottingham City Council, which does not include Gedling, showed that of the 71.1 per cent of women who begin to breastfeed in the city – almost half (47.7 per cent) continue past the first six to eight weeks.
Owner Charlotte Purdie, 23, came up with the concept for the cafe after giving birth to her son Bobby, 2, and struggling to find suitable places to feed him.
She said: “I saw a gap in the market after I had my son in 2015 and struggled to find places to feed him when I went out.
“The first cafe had a really good response, so we decided to open another in Beeston after doing market research and seeing that it is a good area.
“The new cafe will be exactly the same as the original and have a baby sensory room, party room and comfort room, as well as an area for mums, dads, grandparents, and everyone else to relax.”
Currently the cafe offers a variety of activities including language classes, baby massage and mother and baby pilates.
Charlotte said: “We recently started offering language classes after it was suggested by one of our customers – so far we have confirmed French and are hoping to offer Spanish too.
“Pilates is also very popular – so popular that we can’t fit everyone in, but we will be bringing the classes to our Beeston store too.”
The cafe offers free peer support and advice for breastfeeding mums as well as comfortable areas to breastfeed discretely.
