Frome Town Hall has been awarded the Somerset Positive About Breastfeeding Award. The award highlights that the venue, home to Frome Town Council, welcomes mothers to breastfeed their babies in any public area on the premises during its normal opening hours.
The Positive About Breastfeeding scheme aims to support mothers to feel more comfortable and confident to breastfeed their baby, whilst encouraging greater acceptance and promotion of breastfeeding in commercial, health and community settings.
The Town Hall has met several criteria to receive the award:
- Babies can be breast fed anywhere in any public area of the Town Hall
- Frome Town Council has a breastfeeding policy
- All staff who work at the Town Hall will be made aware of how to implement the policy
So why are we doing this?
- Breastmilk provides a baby with all they need for healthy growth and development in the first six months, constantly adapting to meet a baby’s daily needs and offering protection against a number of infections
- Growing evidence shows it can protect against obesity in later life
- Breastfeeding helps mums as well, by reducing the risk of breast cancer, diabetes and ovarian cancer
- In Somerset over 80 per cent of women start breastfeeding but this then drops to between 40-50 per cent by the six to eight-week health check
- The award is one of many breastfeeding schemes in Somerset that aims to support mums to breastfeed
- We hope to encourage other organisations in Frome to also apply for the status
All this links to our health and wellbeing agenda – including the Frome Town Council priorities around healthy lifestyles, for example.
Interested in applying for the Positive About Breastfeeding award?
Other venues in Frome are encouraged to also apply for Positive About Breastfeeding status. Applying is simple – for more information visit the Positive About Breastfeeding website. Members of the public are also able to nominate members of the public for the award using the same weblink.
Come along to the Frome Baby Cafe…
The Town Hall already hosts a Baby Café, every Friday from 10 – 12, which is a supportive environment for families with babies to come for a cuppa and advice. Anyone with a baby is welcome to attend. You can find out about the Baby Café here.
Support for breastfeeding
For more information and support on breastfeeding please go to the Positive About Breastfeeding website.
Published 27th July 2018.
