Everton Football Club has become the first football club in England to register as a breastfeeding friendly organisation.

The Blues and its official charity Everton in the Community (EitC) have joined Liverpool City Council’s ‘Babies and Mums Breastfeeding Information and Support’ initiative (Bambis) to help encourage a breastfeeding friendly environment to support families across the city to breastfeed.

In September 2017, Liverpool City Council launched a ‘Breastfeeding Mayoral Quality Mark’ with the aim of making Liverpool a place where mums can breastfeed in comfort when they are out and about.

Goodison Park and all EitC facilities – including The People’s Hub and The Blue Base – will have the ‘Bambis’ Quality Mark on display to let fans and customers know they are breast feeding friendly venues.

On Friday 22 June, Everton Football Club and EitC officially signed up to ‘Bambis’ at a special coffee afternoon event at The Blue Base for local mums and their children. New mum and Labour and Co-op MP for Liverpool Wavertree Luciana Berger was also in attendance to show her support for the initiative:

“It’s fantastic that Everton has signed up to this really important scheme that supports new mums and their babies in their most precious early few months. It’s great that the Club will be welcoming breastfeeding mums and that their staff will be trained to know how to best support these mums and provide a safe and welcome environment for them to feed.

“It’s so important for the city that we come together today as part of Breastfeeding Awareness Week – we’ve seen some great progress in Liverpool in better supporting women and giving them the information and support they need to be able to breastfeed. We’re on a journey and it’s great that Everton will be leading the way, not only locally but also nationally, and encouraging other clubs across the country to follow suit.”

Everton Football Club People Director Kim Healey added:

“We pride ourselves at Everton and EitC of being an inclusive organisation and promoting equality and diversity and we are pleased to sign up to the Bambis Quality Mark and play our part in helping mums across Liverpool feel welcome and comfortable when feeding their children.”

A total of 250 premises across the city – including cafes, shops and restaurants – have achieved the Quality Mark with Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, ACC Liverpool and Liverpool Museum being just some of the more recent organisations to join the scheme alongside Everton Football Club and EitC.

This week has seen Bambis celebrate ‘National Breastfeeding Week’ and the peer support group has hosted a series of events across Liverpool to encourage mums to come together and share support and advice.

Cabinet member for Children’s Services, Councillor Barry Kushner, said: “When new mums in Liverpool make the choice to breastfeed then the support of Bambis is absolutely invaluable. Breastfeeding for even a short period of time gives children the very best start in the life and these events are a great way for women to come together to celebrate the work of Bambis in making Liverpool a breastfeeding friendly city.”

For more information on Bambis call 0151 233 6874.