Often when parents arrive at Baby Café, they say “I’m sorry we’re late”.
But the whole point of Baby Café Bromley is that it runs as a drop-in. Which means that you don’t need an appointment. You don’t need to arrive as soon as we open. You don’t need to stay until the end. Though I would suggest if you want support from me as the breastfeeding counsellor, ideally get there by 11.30am so that we get time to talk.
If you haven’t been to the Baby Café Bromley before, let me tell you about NCT Baby Cafés in general.
An NCT Baby Café is a free drop-in, led by an NCT Breastfeeding Counsellor, which any parent or expectant parent can come along to for support with feeding their baby.
What to expect at an NCT Baby Café
When visiting a NCT Baby Café you can expect:
- To be made welcome in a relaxed, safe, child-friendly environment
- For the service to be free, inclusive and accessible
- To be supported by a qualified NCT Breastfeeding Counsellor to make decisions that are right for you
- To receive support, encouragement and reliable information – whether getting ready to breastfeed, establishing breastfeeding, continuing breastfeeding, expressing, mixed feeding, formula feeding, introducing solids, stopping breastfeeding and beyond
- To meet other parents
- To be signposted to other services including health professionals, local community support and other NCT services and groups
It doesn’t matter whether you are exclusively breastfeeding, exclusively bottle feeding, expressing or any combination of these.
The point is that I try to make this a safe and accessible space where you get the support you need, and get your infant feeding questions answered.
I am a very experienced NCT Breastfeeding Counsellor who qualified in 2010. However I am not a health professional so sometimes I might signpost you to your GP or health visitor if your questions are about more general health worries or concerns.
Sometimes in school holidays, older children might be there too and that’s absolutely fine with us. Though we don’t have suitable toys or books so if you need to bring an older child, you might want to bring something to keep them occupied while we talk.
Partners or other supporters are always very welcome too.
If you’ve got any specific questions about who the Baby Café Bromley is for, please do message us on the Facebook page.
Baby Café Bromley for infant feeding support
Baby Café Bromley is open:
- Mondays, 10am to 12pm
- St Augustine’s Church, Southborough Lane, Bromley BR2 8AT
Where to get support
NCT Infant Feeding Line open 8am to midnight, every day of the year: 0300 330 0700
National Breastfeeding Line available 24 hours a day, every day of the year: 0300 100 0212.
Find local expert support in the UK Breastfeeding Directory.
If you’re local to Bromley, pop in and see me at Baby Cafe Bromley on Monday mornings. Or book a private 1:1 home visit.
Read Sherry’s book The Confident Mother.
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