SCHENECTADY – The Baby Café is open.

Just as it sounds, it’s a place for babies to relax and have an invigorating drink – though the beverages are neither caffeinated nor for sale.

Baby Cafes encourage breastfeeding, which improves the health of both mother and baby. An open house Tuesday marked the opening of the Capital Region’s first Baby Cafe, at the Phyllis Bornt Branch Library and Literacy Center on State Street. A second will debut Friday in Troy, at the Commission on Economic Opportunity Community Resource Center on Fifth Avenue.

Funded through a five-year, $191,000-a-year state grant, the sites will provide free information and advice from lactation consultants, as well as friendly support for mothers having trouble breastfeeding. State health officials encourage New York mothers to breastfeed their babies exclusively for six months and supplement food and formula with breast milk afterward.

Becky Neyhard, now a Niskayuna resident, remembered when she had trouble breastfeeding her 2-1/2-year-old daughter Camryn, back when they lived in Melrose, Mass., home of the first Baby Café.

“It saved our breastfeeding relationship,” Neyhard said.

Neyhard was at the Baby Café to support the opening as well as any other mothers who showed up.

“You can’t get through this motherhood journey without other moms,” she said.

Leading the local breastfeeding support effort is St. Peter’s Health Partners Community Health Programs. The group was one of three statewide awarded funding, said the program director, Erin Sinisgalli. It had originally intended to open a third Baby Café in Albany, but was forced to scale down after this year's state budget cut the grant 20 percent.

Breastfeeding can make a significant difference in a child’s health. Breastfed babies are less likely to be obese later on; Sinisgalli said this is in part because they are not taught to overeat, but stop when they’re satisfied. They have stronger immune systems and less incidence of chronic diseases like asthma and diabetes. And breastfeeding lowers the mother’s risk of breast cancer, while it reduces the baby’s risk of childhood cancers, said Sarah Tice, a public health nurse.

In Schenectady County, the library was chosen for the Baby Café because it is on a bus route and already hosted programs for families with children under 5. Many county residents are unable to take advantage of breastfeeding support programs already held at Bellevue Woman’s Center in Niskayuna, said Lisa Ayers, Schenectady County’s director of public health. The program especially wanted to target African-American women, who have lower rates of breastfeeding than whites or Latinas, Tice said.

“The county is extremely proud to participate in this,” said Karen Johnson, a county legislator. “If we don’t improve community health, insurance can’t rescue us.”

The state grant will also support efforts to put lactation rooms in workplaces, doctors’ offices and even entertainment venues, Sinisgalli said.

A lactation consultant and breastfeeding advocate, Tice looked ready to burst with enthusiasm and pride as she talked up the new program. She showed off a life-size cardboard standup of herself, nursing her son. A couple years old, the picture stands at the entrance of the Baby Café. There will be more placed throughout the city.

“I just can’t believe this is happening,” Tice said. “It’s such a dream.”