Expectant and new mothers in Lewisham and Greenwich are benefiting from the services of Baby Cafes.

Held once a week, Baby Cafes give mums support and guidance on breast feeding, particularly for mothers with young babies.

The drop-in centres also give parents the chance to meet and socialise with other new families.

Run by parents charity NCT in partnership with Greenwich council, the Quaggy Children's Centre Baby Cafe has supported over 275 families and NCT breastfeeding councillor Liza Taylor is hoping they can help even more.

She said: "On a normal day we see between 5-6 families a week but on a busy week we could see as much as 20.

"Half the babies we see are under five weeks old so we provide support and care to new mothers who need help with breast feeding."

An NCT study shows that most woman want to breastfeed and of those who give up within the first few weeks through a lack of support, 75% would have preferred to continue and the Baby Cafes are aiming to work with this group in particular.

Peer support worker Meghan Rich, of Lewisham visited the drop-in centres with her daughter, Ella and was so impressed with the support and advice offered that she decided to train as a support worker.

She said: "I started coming to the sessions when Ella was less than a week old and I found out about an opportunity to train here, I thought it was a great opportunity to help out during my maternity leave.

"During pregnancy you don't realise how hard breastfeeding is, you only think about giving birth, you don't think about breastfeeding.

"There's lots of resources available but really what you need is someone to talk to.

"There's lots of other mums here as well who are really supportive, we've all got babies who are a similar age and we're all going through similar things."

New mum Jessica Edwards, 36, of Norman Road in Greenwich began visiting the centre after experiencing breastfeeding problems with her son Reece, three weeks old.

Reece was born prematurely and was born with a tongue-tie making breast-feeding harder for Jessica.

She said: "I've been coming here to try and get him to learn how to breastfeed and it's been really helpful, as well as being around other people who are finding it difficult.

"It's something that sounds easy and naturally but actually it's really difficult, I wouldn't have tried if there wasn't the support I get here.

There are currently seven Baby Cafes across Lewisham and Greenwich which are part of a network of over 100 Baby Cafes in the UK.

For more information on Baby Cafes visit http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/socialcare/health/becoming-a-parent/Pages/Baby-Cafe-Locals.aspx