Breastfeeding Support

Breastfeeding and infant feeding support is available to all families residing within the Northern Trust area.

Breastfeeding gives your baby the best possible start as breastmilk provides a lot more than just nourishment, it acts as both food and medicine due to special components which helps to boost your child’s immune system.

While breastfeeding is natural, it is also a learned skill and within the Northern Trust a wide range of support is available for local families.

Breastfeeding Support Groups

Face to face and virtual Breastfeeding Support Groups within your local area are provided by SureStart and our Health Visiting Service.

Included within this list are the groups available, locations, days and times held and a contact for the group should you wish to ask any questions.

Find Your Local Breastfeeding Support Group

UNICEF Baby friendly accreditation

The Northern Trust actively promotes and supports breastfeeding and has been awarded a UNICEF Baby friendly accreditation, achieving the highest standard, the Gold award in 2018.

The award recognises the excellent level of care, knowledge, skill and support provided by our Maternity and Health Visiting services, who are all highly trained in breastfeeding and infant feeding.

Our Neonatal Unit was also the first unit in NI to be fully accredited with stand alone Neonatal Baby Friendly Accreditation in June 2021.

Each family is allocated a Midwife and Health Visitor who can be contacted for additional infant feeding support by face to face or telephone.

Breastfeeding Welcome Here Scheme

Babies should be fed where and when they want but some mums do not have the confidence to feed out and about. For this reason NI businesses that are open to the public are encouraged to join the Breastfeeding Welcome Here Scheme.

For details of all businesses who have signed up to the scheme or for more information on how to become a scheme member then please see www.breastfedbabies.org