Infant Feeding

World Breastfeeding Week is organised by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA). The annual campaign aims to raise awareness about the benefits of breastfeeding for both infants and mothers, while also highlighting the importance of support for breastfeeding mothers. 

This World Breastfeeding Week will focus on environment and climate change. It will highlight our roles in supporting breastfeeding to create a sustainable environment while simultaneously reducing the impact of climate change caused by artificial feeding. 

There will be a range of activities during this year’s WBW in Havering. Visit our stall on Wednesday 6th August 2025 in The Liberty Shopping Centre. 

Local services are celebrating World Breastfeeding Week: 

Havering Children Centres – “We are celebrating World Breastfeeding Week because every feeding journey deserves compassion, connection, and care. Our team offers a listening ear, reassurance, and practical help. To find out more about how to access feeding support from Havering Children’s Centres, please email infant.feeding@havering.gov.uk.

LatchOn Havering – “LatchOn is celebrating World Breastfeeding Week because every mother should have the right to the best quality support when she needs it most. We are a local breastfeeding support charity run by trained peer supporters who offer a space for mothers and their families to get evidence based, non-judgemental support that is mother-centred. We also offer a space for mothers and their families to socialise and make new friends. Find us on social media or check out our website” 

NELFT Health Visiting Service – “NELFT is celebrating World Breastfeeding Week because “as a health visiting team, we are committed in supporting families. Breastfeeding helps the best start for babies with supporting healthy growth and development. We celebrate the long-term health benefits of breastfeeding for both mother and baby. Our team is here to offer practical advice, emotional support, and guidance, to help families sustain breastfeeding for as long as they wish. Visit our website for more information.  

We know from extensive and reliable research that breastmilk is the best form of nutrition for babies but also breastfeeding about much more than nutrition.

It supports loving relationships and brain development, helps to protect babies from a range of illnesses and cot death, reduces risk for mothers of breast and ovarian cancers and heart disease, and has positive financial and environmental benefits.

But breastfeeding isn’t always easy at the start, and many mums battle against social pressures and expectations, painful experiences, and worries over milk supply.

Expert help and support when it’s needed can help to overcome these barriers.

Pain on breastfeeding can often be resolved when you’re shown alternative feeding positions to improve your baby’s latch, trained practitioners can alleviate concerns you might have about milk supply and medical issues (e.g. colic or tongue tie), and meeting other mums helps remove many social pressures.

Whether you’re breastfeeding or formula feeding, midwives, health visitors, early years practitioners and peer supporters across Havering are here to support you. 

Support from your midwife

Booking appointment - your midwife will talk to you about developing a close loving relationship with your baby before and after birth, the value of breastfeeding and, if you wish to formula feed, how to do this safely.

You will also be offered antenatal infant feeding classes within the community or at Queens Hospital.

When you give birth - you will be offered skin-to-skin contact with your baby to promote attachment and breastmilk production.

Your midwife will also show you how to hold your baby for feeding, and explain responsive feeding and relationship building.

All breastfeeding mothers are provided with a feeding assessment to ensure good feeding practices prior to transfer to the community (from which point you will be supported by Health Visiting services).

If you are formula feeding you will be offered a demonstration and discussion on how to do this safely.

Support from your health visitor and community services

Within 10-14 days of you giving birth your health visitor will contact you and where possible will visit at home or clinic to check weight, how feeding is going, discuss any issues arising and provide support. 

Health visitors carry out one to one support on request only. This will need to be booked with the allocated health visitor.

Baby Feeding Café’s support parents and carers on their babies feeding journey from new-born and beyond.

Our trained infant feeding advisors can provide support, information and advice on breastfeeding, formula feeding and starting your baby on solid foods.

Baby Feeding Café’s run virtually on a weekly basis, and in person by appointment.

To find out more about how to access feeding support from Havering Children’s Centres, please email childrenscentres@havering.gov.uk

Breastfeeding and starting solid foods support is also available from local community organisation LatchOn and La Leche League.

Support from online and telephone services

Health Visitors

• 0300 300 1635 (9am - 5pm, Monday – Friday)
• nem-tr.haveringhv@nhs.net
• Havering Children Services webpage on the NELFT NHS website

Families can call or email a duty health visitor to get instant advice. The duty health visitor can also send a message to your named health visitor requesting further support.

Start4Life 

• 0300 123 1021 or textphone 0300 123 1054 (9am - 8pm, 7 days a week)
• Start4Life website

The Start4Life off to the best start leaflet contains lots of useful information about feeding your baby.

National Breastfeeding Helpline 

• 0300 100 0212 (9.30am - 9.30pm, 7 days a week)
• National Breastfeeding Helpline website

The Breastfeeding Network Support Line in Bengali/Sylheti 

• 0300 456 2421 (9.30am - 9.30pm, 7 days a week)

NCT Breastfeeding Line 

• 0300 330 0771 (8am - midnight, 7 days a week)
• NCT website

• La Leche League 

• 0345 120 2918
• La Leche website

Unicef Baby Friendly Initiative

• Unicef Baby Friendly Initiative website

Please note calls to 03 numbers should cost no more than geographic 01 or 02 UK-wide calls and may be part of inclusive minutes subject to your provider and your call package. 

Support from peer support groups

Breastfeeding support is also available from local community organisation LatchOn and La Leche League. 

LatchOn Havering provides free drop-in sessions for mums-to-be and mums and their families. The sessions are staffed by trained peer supporters who host a welcoming, evidence-based and non-judgmental space to give mums comprehensive breastfeeding support and information. More information can be found in the leaflet on this page.

La Leche League Brentwood and Havering run online group meetings. For more information, email - lllbrentwoodhavering@gmail.com.

 

 

Mothers have the legal right to breastfeed anywhere, in accordance with the Equality Act 2010, but poor facilities and negative responses can sometimes make this difficult.

The aim of the Breastfeeding Welcome Havering scheme is to:

• make it easy for mums to find welcoming and supportive places to breastfeed
• recognise businesses and organisations for promoting and supporting breastfeeding.

You will find the Breastfeeding Welcome Havering logo displayed in the windows of cafés, libraries, children's centres and other public venues around the borough.

 

Our list of Havering Breastfeeding Welcome locations

Cafes, coffee shops and restaurants

• Ace Coffee and Bagel, Upminster
• Caffe Gelato, Upminster
• Costa Coffee, Queens Hospital, Romford
• Harris and Hoole, Romford
• North Street Cafe, Romford
• Pink Parachute, Hornchurch
• Queens Hospital Food Court, Romford
• Rainham Hall, Rainham
• Romford United Reformed Church, Romford
• Tasty Bolle, Romford
• Tops Cafe, Hornchurch

Children’s Centres

• Collier Row Children’s Centre, Collier Row
• Elm Park Children’s Centre, Elm Park
• Ingrebourne Children’s Centre, Harold Hill
• Rainham Village Children’s Centre, Rainham
• St Kilda Children’s Centre, Romford

GP Surgeries and Health Centres

• Central Park Surgery, Harold Hill
• Harold Wood Walk In Centre, Harold Wood
• Harold Hill Health Centre, Harold Hill
• Cranham Health Centre, Upminster
• North Street Medical Care, Romford

Libraries

• Collier Row Library, Collier Row
• Elm Park Library, Hornchurch
• Gidea Park Library, Romford
• Harold Hill Library, Romford
• Harold Wood Library, Romford
• Hornchurch Library, Hornchurch
• Rainham Library, Rainham
• Romford Library, Romford
• South Hornchurch Library, Rainham
• Upminster Library, Upminster

Leisure centres

• Harrow Lodge Leisure Centre, Hornchurch
• Sapphire Ice and Leisure, Romford

Nurseries and other childcare settings

• Fledgelings Day Nursery- Romford, Romford
• Fledgelings Day Nursery - Hornchurch, Hornchurch  
• New Beginnings Day Nursery – Romford, Romford 
• New Beginnings Day Nursery - Rainham, Rainham
• Montessori Minds Day Nursery, Romford

If you’re pregnant or have children under the age of 4 you can get free vouchers or payments every 4 weeks to spend on cow’s milk, fresh, frozen or tinned fruit and vegetables, infant formula milk, and fresh, dried, and tinned pulses.

You can also get free Healthy Start vitamins.

For more information on the Healthy Start scheme, eligibility and how to apply, please visit the NHS Healthy Start Scheme website.

Eligibility for Healthy Start Scheme

You’ll qualify for the Healthy Start scheme if you’re at least 10 weeks pregnant or you have at least one child that’s under 4 and you are receiving any of the following.

• Child Tax Credit (only if your family’s annual income is £16,190 or less)
• Income Support
• Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• Pension Credit (which includes the child addition)
• Universal Credit (only if your family’s take-home pay is £408 or less per month from employment)

You will also be eligible for Healthy Start if:

• you’re under 18 and pregnant, even if you are not claiming any benefits
• you claim income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and are over 10 weeks pregnant
• you or your partner get Working Tax Credit run-on only. (Working Tax Credit run-on is the Working Tax Credit you receive in the 4 weeks immediately after you have stopped working for 16 hours or more per week)
• you are excluded from claiming public funds as a consequence of your (lack of) immigration status and you have parental responsibility for at least one British child who is less than 4 years old and your family’s take-home pay is less than £408 per month

You can check if you’re eligible by applying.

Use the 'check what help you could get to pay for NHS costs online service' to see if you’re eligible for other help with NHS costs.

For more information on the Healthy Start scheme and how to apply visit the NHS Healthy Start Scheme website

If you have any questions regarding Healthy Start, please contact the Public Health Team at publichealth@havering.gov.uk, using the subject heading “Healthy Start Scheme”.

UK online and digital resources aimed at parents

• Start4Life - The official NHS information service on healthy nutrition for pregnant women, new mothers and babies. Start4Life is informed by the latest research by the WHO and is aligned with NICE guidelines and Unicef’s Baby Friendly Initiative.
• Start4Life Information Service for Parents - Parents can sign up for weekly emails, texts and videos for support from pregnancy to infancy.
• Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative: Support for Parents - The UK branch of the accreditation programme of Unicef/World Health Organisation, designed to support breastfeeding and parent infant relationships by working with public services to improve standards of care. This section of the BFI website details what parents can expect from a Baby Friendly accredited setting and links to information on breastfeeding support and the management of breastfeeding problems.
• NHS Website: Your Pregnancy and Baby Guide - This guide includes all you need to know about trying for a baby, pregnancy, labour and birth.
• NHS Website: Breastfeeding Help and Support - Lists the different locations where breastfeeding support can be found including 1-to-1 support, breastfeeding drop-ins, cafes and centres, breastfeeding helplines and websites, and how your partner can support breastfeeding
• First Steps Nutrition Trust - Evidence-based information on infant nutrition, including information about breastfeeding and infant milks for healthcare providers and parents.
• The Breastfeeding Companion - Information standard assured website with free access to a large number of supportive videos and answers to questions on pregnancy and breastfeeding.
• From Bump to Breastfeeding videos - NHS resource produced by the charity Best Beginnings. The videos use mothers’ stories to show parents how to start breastfeeding and provides practical answers to common challenges.
• Best Beginnings Baby Buddy - A multi-award winning App developed by the charity Best Beginnings which includes videos, information and updates about the user’s pregnancy and postnatal journey.

Information for Fathers, Partners and Other Supporters

• NCT: Fathers and Breastfeeding Information Sheet - Covers how a father can help with breastfeeding and common concerns fathers have about breastfeeding.
• Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust Infant Feeding Team: Involving the Family - Information on how the family can get involved with supporting a breastfeeding mother and bonding with the baby.
• La Leche League GB: Supporting a Breastfeeding Mother - Information for fathers, partners (including same-sex partners), the wider family, visitors and mothers with no support.

The Starting Solid Food Workshop is an interactive workshop to provide information to help with understanding when and how to introduce solid foods to your baby.

It is currently being delivered virtually and is aimed at parents with babies aged between 4 and 6 months.

The workshop helps parents decide on a number of key questions, including:

• when is a baby ready to try solid food?
• what foods should they start with?
• when is a baby hungry and when have they had enough?
• how can you make meal times an enjoyable experience for both parent and baby?

The 1 hour 30 min workshops are being run by the early years practitioners.

Parents are given useful web links where they can download resources including Start4Life’s‘Introducing solid foods’ and First Steps Nutrition’s ‘Eating well: the first year’.

If you would like to join a workshop please e-mail childrenscentres@havering.gov.uk