BAKERSFIELD,CA- A local team of lactation experts needs your help to bring California's first baby café to Bakersfield.
"The Baby Café is going to be a breast feeding friendly place where's moms and babies can come locally and get lactation education, support," said lactation education specialist, April Wood.
Members of the Central Valley Lactation Association say a baby café is needed in Kern County.
They say the county doesn't do well in comparison to breastfeeding rates around the state.
After working with moms, Wood says she quickly noticed a gap in breast feeding services.
"If a mom doesn't qualify for WIC per say, you know they really don't have anywhere to go outside of the hospital to get support or breastfeeding help," said Wood.
The Baby Café will be a place where women can talk to each other and there will always be an international board certified lactation consultant on staff to provide professional breastfeeding support.
"It's a big deal, it's a really big deal especially since we're not one of the major metropolitan areas you would normally expect to see something like this," said Wood.
The association has received preliminary approval to open a licensed Baby Café in 2014.
"We're pretty much a nonprofit so we would be run off of community donations. So we're looking for corporate sponsors right now, local businesses," said Wood.
Planet Bambini store owner Stefani Bye has donated a space in her building to welcome Baby Café.
"We decided to welcome the breastfeeding café in Planet Bambini because we think it's an amazing idea. It's a great way for mothers to get help in a way that their comfortable. Not necessarily in a clinical or medical setting; a very comfortable relaxed casual setting," said Bye.
Existing baby cafés across the world support nearly 8,000 moms.
"It's important to have something like this to normalize it to make it comfortable for women, a place where they can go and get the support they need outside of a sterile medical environment," said Wood.
The public can donate by visiting www.centralvalleylactation.weebly.com
"The Baby Café is going to be a breast feeding friendly place where's moms and babies can come locally and get lactation education, support," said lactation education specialist, April Wood.
Members of the Central Valley Lactation Association say a baby café is needed in Kern County.
They say the county doesn't do well in comparison to breastfeeding rates around the state.
After working with moms, Wood says she quickly noticed a gap in breast feeding services.
"If a mom doesn't qualify for WIC per say, you know they really don't have anywhere to go outside of the hospital to get support or breastfeeding help," said Wood.
The Baby Café will be a place where women can talk to each other and there will always be an international board certified lactation consultant on staff to provide professional breastfeeding support.
"It's a big deal, it's a really big deal especially since we're not one of the major metropolitan areas you would normally expect to see something like this," said Wood.
The association has received preliminary approval to open a licensed Baby Café in 2014.
"We're pretty much a nonprofit so we would be run off of community donations. So we're looking for corporate sponsors right now, local businesses," said Wood.
Planet Bambini store owner Stefani Bye has donated a space in her building to welcome Baby Café.
"We decided to welcome the breastfeeding café in Planet Bambini because we think it's an amazing idea. It's a great way for mothers to get help in a way that their comfortable. Not necessarily in a clinical or medical setting; a very comfortable relaxed casual setting," said Bye.
Existing baby cafés across the world support nearly 8,000 moms.
"It's important to have something like this to normalize it to make it comfortable for women, a place where they can go and get the support they need outside of a sterile medical environment," said Wood.
The public can donate by visiting www.centralvalleylactation.weebly.com