Comfortable breastfeeding space for mothers created

This February, The Royal South Hants Midwives officially opened the new breastfeeding room located at Royal South Hants, creating a comfortable space for mothers to breastfeed their newborn babies.

Last June as part of national breastfeeding week, Southampton Hospitals Charity launched a mini appeal to refurbish a room in Royal South Hants hospital next to the postnatal clinics.

New parents Lucy Wilcox and Peter Wheeler say: “Our baby Rosie is only eight days old, and she is my first. I’ve not fed her in public before, so the thought of feeding her at a hospital appointment was quite daunting.

This new room is so comfortable and private. This means a lot as I am not distracted by someone else walking along the corridor getting to their appointment while Rosie is trying to latch on. Thank you so much to everyone involved in this project. It is really appreciated.”

Clare Godden is the Baby Friendly Initiative Project Lead and an Infant Feeding Specialist for University Hospital Southampton. She says: “These mothers are in their very early days of having a baby and this is when they need the most support. Having this room next to our clinics is invaluable. Previously, the old storage room was run down with plastic chairs, and it wasn’t comfortable for our new mothers. I want to thank Amiri Construction for painting the room for us. This gave us a fantastic canvas to use the hospital charity money to provide soft furnished chairs, artwork of other breastfeeding mothers, a radio to create an atmosphere, and toys for siblings to play with.

It was a pleasure to be able to give staff who wanted to help out the time off to get this done and help create such a fantastic space! Great to see Adam Griffiths doing what QSs do best and surveying whilst Claire Bayly and Hannah Myers get on with the work. Not in these pics, but working equally hard are Leah James and Chantal Webster.