At Seedlings Preschool (Edgecumbe), we joined Building Blocks in February 2018. We started off with our Breastfeeding Friendly Block and put in place changes to become Breastfeeding Friendly accredited by Toi Te Ora. The aim of the Breastfeeding Friendly Spaces accreditation is to encourage and support mums to breastfeed by providing a comfortable space to breastfeed, supportive policies, and staff training, with the goal of increasing breastfeeding rates and duration.

Centre Leader, Sharon Bakker says; “We already provided a comfortable couch for breastfeeding but we needed to put in place a policy to support breastfeeding. This included providing staff training about how to support our breastfeeding mothers. When we achieved our Breastfeeding Friendly Accreditation, we also received signage and a certificate to display. This helped to raise awareness with our community about our support for breastfeeding mothers.” 

We know that providing a supportive and private space where breastfeeding mothers feel comfortable and supported to breastfeed or express can make a huge difference to a mother’s decision to continue breastfeeding.

We experienced this first-hand after a breastfeeding mum encouraged another mother, who was ready to end her breastfeeding journey, not to give up and to breastfeed next to her on the couch as part of our breastfeeding space. The mums shared with each other their own breastfeeding journeys while feeding their pēpi. We thought this was such  a beautiful example of how a breastfeeding friendly space could bring māmā together in a supportive environment for the benefit of their babies.