We asked you to nominate a place who went above and beyond to make breastfeeding that bit easier or a supporter who helped you overcome your breastfeeding hurdles and we have received an amazing response from mums across the UK.
Thank you to everyone who nominated and supported our mission to increase breastfeeding rates in the UK by giving mums the confidence to feed their baby whenever and wherever they need.
We received over 800 nominations and we are delighted to announce our worthy winners and runners-up.
Feed with Confidence Places Winner
Congratulations to The Mug Tree in East Grinstead who received the highest nominations in our breastfeeding places category.
Here is what one mum said:
“In a town awash with coffee shops, The Mug Tree stands out from the rest. It’s such a friendly venue, and they do so much for the community, the environment, and even more for breastfeeding mothers. They’re trying to change attitudes towards breastfeeding in public and have provided the most welcoming space for us.”
Kathryn Hibberd-Little, owner of The Mug Tree Tea Room, said of the win:
“Mums should be able to breastfeed their babies wherever, whenever they want. The fact that so many mums still don’t feel able to is a huge wake up call for us all to do better in making them feel more comfortable, supported and empowered to breastfeed their babies in public. We’re proud to be leading the way and delighted to receive this national award for our services to breastfeeding mums.”
Congratulations to our Runners-Up
Napuccino
Haverhill Breastfeeding Friends
Feed with Confidence Supporter Winner
Congratulations to Laura Moore who won our Feed with Confidence Supporter award 2019 and was nominated by her friend Jo;
“Laura has always been a breastfeeding champion, even since before having children. She wrote blogs about it and I was massively prepared for feeding my children from reading my friend’s work.
Sadly, and in a cruel twist, when Laura had her first baby she discovered she has Insufficient Glandular Tissue and Chronic Low Supply. This has meant that for a passionate pro-breast feeder she has never been able to exclusively supply all of her children’s needs.
Despite this she has battled through using an SNS and donor milk as well as her own. She has been at the end of the line for my many questions when feeding my own children and continued to write helpfully on breastfeeding and championing it.”
Laura was thrilled to be named our winner;
“This award means such a lot to me. I had a really difficult start to my own breastfeeding journey, and then discovered that I have IGT and chronic low supply, so I was never able to exclusively breastfeed any of my babies. I was quite heartbroken about it, so I did the only thing I knew how to do – I read everything I could find and tried to become an expert on breastfeeding!
My lovely friend Jo, who nominated me for this award, once wrote to me to say that she had become a peer supporter because of me; that even though I hadn’t been able to exclusively feed my own babies, my experiences and support and advice would enable many more babies to be breastfed.
Thank you for choosing me as the Feed with Confidence Supporter 2019. This award has come at a difficult time, not least because my fourth and final baby is trying to wean before I am ready! It has done me a world of good to find out that my desire to support and help other mums to breastfeed hasn’t gone unnoticed.”
Congratulations to our Supporter Runners-up
Runner-up- Michelle Marr
Michelle Marr was nominated by her sister-in -law;
“My sister in law has been so incredibly supportive of my breastfeeding journey. She has exclusively breastfed her 3 children and was an inspiration to me.
My breastfeeding journey had a very rocky start with my little girl being born prematurely and in intensive care for a couple of weeks in an incubator. My daughter Betty was too poorly to be fed by me directly after the first 2 days and she was fed expressed milk through a nasigastric tube. Michelle was there for me from the beginning, visiting us in hospital frequently and always being at the end of the phone for any questions I had.
As a first-time mum I had a lot of questions and was low in confidence. As well as helping emotionally, she helped by providing me with an electric pump for when we got home, as well as a few nursing covers for when I was feeling anxious feeding in public. I soon felt a lot more comfortable feeding in public with her support.
I have found breastfeeding really rewarding but also very difficult, and Michelle has a good understanding of this and was always there to offer advice or even just a friendly ear when I needed to vent, especially about how difficult I was finding things (in particular the lack of sleep due to the constant night feeding!) Michelle also held a ‘breastfeeding cafe’ at her house for peer support for breastfeeding mums. She is a very special lady and I cannot thank her enough.”
Runner-up – Sarah Mockridge
Sarah Mockridge was nominated by her husband, who was inspired by her commitment to overcome the hurdles to breastfeed;
“Despite being in possibly the most unsupported and minimally funded areas for breastfeeding, my wife has literally astonished me with how she has overcome quite a lot of open abuse and negativity, to still be going strong 6 months in.
Our daughter was born with a head trauma from assisted delivery which left her with quite significant bruising and swelling to the head. She was almost guaranteed to suffer from jaundice but after 3 or 4 months of love and nurturing from her Mum, she was in perfect shape and this was confirmed by medical professionals as mostly the benefit of the nutrients provided through breast milk.
My wife has also not only had to get through the stages of cluster feeding whilst fighting off infection after episiotomy, but also our little lady having a pevlic harness fitted for her hips, which made feeding very challenging for a further 12 weeks. At 6 months, our baby is the most amazing, healthy, caring, happy little soul and it all down to her Mum.
Sarah is a true advocate for breastfeeding and has recently been to campaign at our local council for funding towards recently closed breastfeeding support services. Sarah has grown in confidence despite being referred to ‘perverse’ by another mother and now feeds comfortably with her head held high, making the bind between her and the baby even stronger. I am simply in awe of her every day.”
Feed with Confidence Competition Winner
Thanks again to everyone who has supported our Feed with Confidence Awards 2019 and nominated a breastfeeding place or supporter. Our prize draw winner is Natalie Dunn who has won £250 John Lewis Vouchers. We hope you enjoy spending the vouchers.
