Mothers breastfeeding babies at the Royal Children's Hospital are taking advantage of a meals service.

Last year the hospital's Nutrition and Food Services served about 5,000 meals—lunch and dinner—to breastfeeding mum and mothers of infant patients.'

The service was established several years ago by a group of hospital staff, including Kay Gibbons, Jane Miller and Michele Meehan.

They realised mothers could spend many weeks needing to be close to their babies most of the time.

They also understood the importance of breastfeeding mothers eating well to take care of themselves and their babies.

They acknowledged how difficult and expensive accessing nutritious meals could be over time.

A recent survey of service recipients found 80 per cent of the mums used it for both lunch and dinner every day.

Some mums who lived close used it occasionally when they could not go home for a meal.