In Camden today, city officials gathered to launch the first ever baby café in the state to support breastfeeding moms and to break barriers in getting more lactation care.

Raven Santana has the story.

Camden is now home to the state's first baby café.

Members of Cooper Medical School at Rowan University City officials and community members celebrated the launch of the new cafe located at the Leta L Cream Library on Ferry Avenue.

The Cooper Camden Baby Cafe is a space where new moms can come for assistance, education and lactation support.

The CAFE offers free professional lactation services and a calm coffee shop like atmosphere.

The space will also include one on one support Crucial breastfeeding information.

Peer support for other family members.

Access to digital skill for weighing babies and proper nutritional snacks and refreshments.

Additionally, a designated librarian will be conducting Storytime Segments during Café Drop in hours for accompanying younger children.

Baby Café USA is a nonprofit organization that coordinates a network of free breastfeeding drop in centers and other types of breastfeeding support.

The Cooper Camden Baby Café is an initiative of Cooper Medical School at Rowan University, where every Thursday between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m., moms can drop in to receive free one on one feeding support.

International Board Certified Lactation specialist Cindy Ferreira is a co-founder of the Cafe.

A good percentage of Mothers Day star breastfeeding about 80%.

But that number tends to decrease once they are discharged from the hospital or the birth center of Harvard.

Their birth look died.

We do see a lower rate of infants that are from black mothers are ever breastfed and also from communities of color as well.

So our goal is to really improve breastfeeding disparities and underserved communities.

In an effort to continue to improve maternal and child health and create a community for parents to connect.

The café received a lump sum of just over $37,000 from New Jersey Health Communities Network co-founder Dr. Lori Winter says the money will help pilot the program for the next two years.

Baby cafes are designed.

It's a national organization that was designed to create these safe spaces that would be completely free, no strings attached, no insurance necessary and service.

One of the requirements to be a baby café is that the lead has to be a board certified lactation consultant.

So you know that the help and the advice that's being offered is that of somebody that's truly a knowledgeable, skillful lactation support provider.

In this community, especially, there can be so many cultural nuances, such a lack of social support systems.

The stigma surrounding breastfeeding is so pervasive.

So I think it's really important to have an informal setting where moms can learn about breastfeeding, maternal and infant health and just got more exposure to education on breastfeeding in general.

Ferrara says she now hopes the café will also provide research and data over the next two years to help reduce barriers and continue to expand the program to other areas in the state.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Raven Santana.