Social venture, The Bshirt has announced the first eatery in the town to display the ‘Breastfeed Here with Confidence’ badge.

Local venture, founded by two Totnes based mumpreneurs, The Bshirt has revealed that the well-established, The Venus Company in Dartmouth is supporting the breastfeeding badge scheme.

Launched to coincide with the first anniversary of The Bshirt, the badge scheme has received a great response from South Hams businesses.

A representative from The Venus Company said: “The Venus Team are delighted and proud to support the ‘Breastfeed Here with Confidence’ scheme.

“Venus has always been welcoming to families and children of all ages to enjoy good local food at the beach all year round.”

On a mission to empower women to breastfed confidently and help improve breastfeeding rates in the UK, co-founders Lisa Lessware and Philippa Doyle have been thrilled with the feedback since the scheme launched at the end of March.

Bshirt was created in March 2017 to improve new mums’ confidence and help to make breastfeeding even more accessible, literally.

Lisa had the idea for The Bshirt after giving birth to her son. She struggled to find easy to wear clothes for breastfeeding from her own wardrobe, so keen crafter Lisa set out to tailor her own breastfeeding vest which would enable her to wear both long and short sleeved tops.

After numerous requests for the same design from family and friends, Phillipa being one of the first, the first Bshirt was born.

At the MadeForMums 2018 Awards, Bshirt scooped a number of industry awards including Gold in the ‘best breastfeeding accessory’ as well as gaining endorsements from leading experts such as breastfeeding specialist, author and midwife Clare Byam-cook.

The NHS and Unicef list embarrassment at feeding in public as a major barrier to breastfeeding. However, results from a customer feedback survey conducted by Bshirt highlighted 83 per cent of women feeling more confident feeding in front of others while wearing their Bshirts.

Lisa and Philippa said: “We are proud to be sponsoring the ‘Breastfeed Here with Confidence’ badge so that breastfeeding mothers can immediately know which establishments in their area support breastfeeding.

“There are lots of public places such as cafes, restaurants and shops that are happy to have breastfeeding babies on their premises-but it may not be obvious to new mums that this is the case.

“We hope that by allowing this scheme to be widely available to anyone who wants to make breastfeeding women feel welcome that we can help to change that.”

To find out more about the scheme, register interest or to nominate your favourite venue, please visit www.thebshirt.co.uk.