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Middlesbrough Football Club now openly supports breastfeeding in the stands

Mothers are now encouraged to breastfeed at Riverside Stadium. [Photo: Getty]
Mothers are now encouraged to breastfeed at Riverside Stadium. [Photo: Getty]

Middlesbrough Football Club has become one of the first football clubs to offer support to breastfeeding women.

While women have a right to breastfeed in any public area under the Equality Act 2010, the team are now actively promoting this practice at their home ground, Riverside Stadium.

They have signed up to the Breastfeeding Welcome Scheme, an initiative which aims to help breastfeeding women feel more comfortable in public.

This will come as a welcome step for Middlesborough Football Club’s large number of supporters coming on a family ticket.

As Riverside Stadium is now officially a Breastfeeding Welcome venue, the management will be expected to display signs around the site reading: “You are welcome to breastfeed your baby here.”

MFC Head of safeguarding Brian Robinson told The Northern Echo: “We’re delighted to be the first club to become actively involved in this. We pride ourselves on being an all-inclusive football club, and this is another key initiative for us.”

However, Middlesbrough aren’t the first club to lend their support to breastfeeding women. In June this year, Everton Football Club registered as a breastfeeding friendly organisation.

Goodison Park, the team’s home ground, registered under Liverpool’s Bambis (Babies and Mums Breastfeeding Information and Support) initiative, to help support breastfeeding mothers across the city.

However, not everywhere in the world is so supportive. Last month, a woman was shamed in a shopping centre in Kolkata, India, after she was told to breastfeed her baby in the venue’s toilets.

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