WHEN you are a new mother, having a comfortable place to breastfeed your baby outside your home can make the world of difference.
A warm room, a comfortable chair and somewhere for an older child to play while you feed and change a newborn is imperative, and the availability of such a place can even dictate whether a mum goes out or stays home.
Some new mums will make their decision on where to go based on whether there is a proper parents' room there.
The parents' room in the Cronulla Central building was awarded a five-star rating by the Australian Breastfeeding Association earlier this year.
The association allocates the ratings (denoted by a baby care symbol) as part of a national campaign to ensure parents and carers have an area to feed and change their babies and toddlers when away from home.
The rating is awarded only to rooms that meet criteria for privacy, comfort, cleanliness and being smoke-free.
Meredith Laverty, who is a breastfeeding counsellor for the association's Cronulla-Sutherland branch, said parents' rooms had come a long way in recent years.
She agreed having a comfortable place to breastfeed was important but said the thing most affecting breastfeeding rates was ensuring mothers had enough support.
"We need to support mums long-term if we are going to improve rates," she said.
"We have got great initiating rates: 93 per cent of mums start off breastfeeding but by three months we have lost about 30 per cent."
Sutherland Shire mayor Steve Simpson welcomed the association's tick of approval.
"When the new Cronulla Central facility was designed, the parents' room was carefully considered to meet the needs of mums, dads and carers," he said.
"It's a convenient, quiet place where children can be fed and changed.
"In a busy part of the shire like Cronulla, these facilities are a must."
Nearby Cronulla Women's Rest Centre got a good three-star rating.
A council spokeswoman said criticisms relating to the Cronulla Central parents' room, raised in the Leader earlier this year, had been addressed.
"Recommendations from a safety audit have been implemented," she said.
BREAST FED FACTS
World Breastfeeding Week (August 1-7) aimed to boost breastfeeding rates.
The World Health Organisation recommends babies are exclusively breast fed (no other milk or solids) for six months. It then recommends a combination of breastfeeding and other food for up to two years.
Australian recommendations support breastfeeding exclusively for six months and up to 12 months combined with solids.
The most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showed 92 percent of babies 0-3 months were breast fed.
By the ages of 6-9 months this dropped to 50 percent and by 9-12 months less that 30 percent of babies were still breast fed.
Only 13 percent of babies aged 12-24 months received breast milk, and by two years and over this dropped to less than 1 per cent.
How long did you or your partner breastfeed your child?