The Baby Café in Tunbridge Wells needs your support – what is it and why is it important?

The Baby Café was set up in 2012 by Jennie Yelverton and has been providing specialist support on breastfeeding to the people of Tunbridge Wells ever since, but now it’s facing the threat of closure due to a lack of funds.

CommunityAd caught up with Jennie to understand where the idea originated from, how it helps the community, and how the community can help the café in return.

What is a breastfeeding café and where did the idea originate from?

A breastfeeding cafe is a place you can get non-judgemental support on any aspect of feeding your baby, from starting to stopping and everything in between and our meetings are every Monday during Kent school term time from 10am to 12pm.

It is run by NCT Breastfeeding Counsellors who are trained to use counselling skills to support parents by empowering them to help them make decisions that are right for them and for their family.

The idea began when I had my second baby and realised there was no-where local I could feed comfortably and meet other parents. As a Breastfeeding Counsellor I recognised that specialist support offered on a drop-in basis was so valuable and I set about finding a model which could provide this in Tunbridge Wells. It was then I found Baby Cafe (which is an international network of licenced drop ins based on just this idea), and that day, in a coffee shop, the idea was born.

How important is it breastfeeding becomes normalised and less taboo?

It is interesting because our culture is really used to bottle feeding and this can be challenging for women to get evidence based unbiased information about what is normal for their baby and for their body.

We know that it is empowering for women (and girls) to see others breastfeeding and we know that if friends or family have breastfed, there is more support and knowledge for their peers and daughters to do so too.

Many new parents do not live near their family and many have moved into the area with the aim of meeting new friends. At Baby Cafe we observe women finding our environment empowering, particularly if those at the cafe have slightly older babies than they do. Meeting someone who is just a few days or weeks further in their journey can be so helpful.

We are there to support women however they decide to feed their baby and many women are breastfeeding in combination with bottle feeding or formula. Some decide to formula feed from the beginning and some get there through quite a difficult journey.

Sometimes women come and see us who want to stop breastfeeding or to cut down. The point is there is no judgement at Baby Cafe – we are there to listen and to support a woman throughout her journey, whatever that may be. 

In an ideal world, how would you like breastfeeding to be portrayed or seen in society, what would you like to change?

Ideally? Well I would like there to be less perceived division about how women decide to feed their babies and more evidenced based information given antenatally to allow breastfeeding to be a possibility for those who want to do so.

Women still report ‘conflicting advice’ or information and a perceived pressure to breastfeed rather than support to understand how their bodies work and what really is normal for babies in different stages. I would like to see women being given more time to discuss their feelings about feeding their babies and for all women to consistently be offered evidenced based non-judgemental support so that they are able to look back on their feeding experience, whatever that might be, in a positive way.

The café is now asking for your support; needing around £4,500 a year to provide the service to parents for free and has already helped over 1,000 families throughout their feeding journey with their highly qualified and supportive NCT Breastfeeding Counsellors and volunteers. The café has already raised an impressive £1,225 but they still have a hill to climb to get to the other side.

If you can help then why not donate to an incredibly worthwhile cause and search ‘Save Baby Café Tunbridge Wells’ on GoFundMe as soon as you can.

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