Derry ranked 6th most breastfeeding-friendly place in UK

The study was carried out ahead of Mother’s Day, which falls on Sunday, May 8, and found that Derry came in at number six out of 70 cities.

Bangor, Gwynedd, in Wales is the most breastfeeding-friendly city while Carlisle, England came in last.

Newry, Armagh, Portsmouth and Belfast all came in ahead of Derry in second to fifth place respectively.

Caoimhe McGonagle, spokesperson for Bella Baby said, “Ahead of Mother’s Day 2022, we wanted to celebrate all mums - including those who are currently breastfeeding.

“We were unsettled when we saw a 2015 report from Public Health England that revealed that a third of women feel embarrassed when breastfeeding in public, and because of this, we wanted to highlight and celebrate breastfeeding mums this year in order to break the stigma. We also wanted all women - including those who are currently breastfeeding - to feel comfortable out and about this Mother’s Day.

“Finally, when conducting our study, we realised that there are hundreds of venues throughout the UK that are not currently registered to a breastfeeding-friendly scheme and have the facilities and designated areas for breastfeeding women. We hope by highlighting this that many of these venues will begin to display stickers on their doors and windows, along with information online to highlight their inclusion of breastfeeding mums.”

The study was conducted using data collected from Tripadvisor and breastfeeding friendly schemes. More information on breastfeeding friendly schemes can be found here.