A few days ago I commented that I have seen nursing rooms that you could not believe, places that can hardly receive this name, and this time we will focus on how the ideal breastfeeding room should be.
Although there may be different preferences on this issue, I think you will agree with me in the basics, and there are places that are not suitable for breastfeeding and that make it difficult or uncomfortable to feed the child. That is why we claim these conditions for nursing rooms.
A space favorable to breastfeeding has comfortable seats. If I needed anything during the first weeks of breastfeeding it was a comfortable place. Of course, at home it was the bed, but when we went out we needed a comfortable and intimate place because the babies did not take the first breast and sometimes we had to improvise somewhat acrobatic postures.
The rooms must be clean, contain bins and an adjoining bathroom, separated by a door, with changing table to clean the baby. We have already commented on several occasions that nobody would think of going to eat in the bathroom where the rest of the people do their needs, because the same with the baby. If the nursing room is separated from the bathroom, there is less chance of being plagued with germs.
A breastfeeding room is wide enough for several moms and baby strollers to enter. It is true that sometimes we would prefer privacy, but we are not the only ones who have babies and it is unfair that some are left out. In any case, I think I've never had to leave a room because I couldn't enter (although it was difficult for me in some).
Asking for the impossible, in an ideal breastfeeding room there are clean cushions and in different ways to facilitate breastfeeding for those mothers who need them.
In this space there is a sink to wash your hands or pots if we have given the baby bottle or porridge, paper to be cleaned or dried, as well as a microwave to heat these foods. These elements could also be placed in an adjoining room, with high chairs or other elements that make it easier for those babies that are no longer so small. The more tranquility and less distraction there is for babies, the better.
In these rooms the lighting is soft, they are conveniently acoustically isolated, and if there is ambient music it should be at a low volume, and better if it is soft and slow. The decoration is discreet, with images of children or babies, without strident colors.
It would be ideal if there were informative leaflets to promote breastfeeding in the wards, with advice for mothers, for example with WHO recommendations.
A nursing room must be well marked and open. It is true that in many shopping centers they are closed for fear of being misused (or vandalism), and perhaps it is a way to ensure that some of the above requirements, such as cleaning, are met. But in that case there must be an available and effective doorbell in direct communication with the nearest staff that can open us in the shortest possible time.
Of course, all these claims do not take away so that the mother who wants to breastfeed the baby anywhere without having to receive bad looks, recriminations or even prohibitions as it happens, unfortunately, so often. A breastfeeding room should encourage breastfeeding and not hide it.
In fact, for many women, especially if the baby is already a few weeks old, breastfeeding is well established and the baby is already feeding without problems, when we have "learned", the ideal breastfeeding room is any space, a park bench or from the shopping center, a corner of the restaurant or the table where we eat, the park floor or on the beach, in and out of the water ...
But if what we prefer is a specific place, this should be the ideal breastfeeding room, or so it would be for me. Surely you also have preferences in this regard, or some discrepancy, and we would love to meet you in your comments.
Photos | moppet65535 and Tim & Selena Middleto on Flickr-CC
In Babies and more | I've seen breastfeeding rooms that you couldn't believe, Lactation rooms
