Yes, I can fill in here.
Borstvoeding Natuurlijk is an association, celebrating her 30th birthday 
this year. ;o) You have to be a member to be a peer counsellor, but mothers 
don't have to be a member to come to the groups, that are no longer called 
mother groups, but information meetings. Membership is 22 euro's a year, 
with four times a magazine.
Most of us organise antenatal meetings for pregnant women and meetings for 
breastfeeding mothers, some of which just come back after having attended 
the information meetings before their delivery. Information meetings 
(antenatal) usually consist of three gatherings, generally dealing with the 
basics, latching and pumping. We are encouraged to hand out all fourteen 
VBN-brochures, in order to offer women a sort of reference booklet. What 
women pay is meant to cover the price of the brochures and the cost of 
refreshments. Some of us don't organise the meetings at home and therefore 
have to rent a venue. This can also be included in the price, that adds up 
to about 15-20 euro's. We have about 180 'contactpersonen' (contact persons) 
and some 80 in training (may be more, haven't got the most recent data at 
hand). VBN-contact persons give m2m support in their meetings and some also 
pay housevisits, although this is not part of our 'job description'. We 
enroll in the telephone service, but with numbers of calls declining, are 
asked more and more to help out on the national breastfeeding forum. Many 
women and mothers find their way to this kind of online help and it is 
important that questions are answered by well-trained, knowledgeable people, 
because not only that one mother reads along, but many, many others. 
Activities seem to shift from groups to online information.
Many health care institutions also organise information meetings nowadays; 
often this is one or two evenings and the quality of the information given 
and the *way* it is given may vary greatly and sometimes differs 
astoundingly from what we tell and the way we do it. On the one hand, it is 
a good development that HCP's take this part of their work seriously; on the 
other hand the volunteer breastfeeding peer counsellors sometimes (rightly 
or wrongly) have the perception that HCP's do not equal their ability to be 
on the same level as the mother who asks for support. There still seems to 
be a long way to go before the notion of autonomy on the parents' behalf is 
the guiding principle. Apart from that, budgets are limited in health care 
institutions. That means that although BFHI-importance is often shouted from 
the roof, breastfeeding care only goes as far as the budget goes... :-( I 
often find this very difficult to deal with, considering the stories I get 
back from mothers. Because the volunteers (who are really well trained 
within Borstvoeding Natuurlijk and have to gather 'cerps', so to speak, 
getting them at a level that sometimes exceeds beginning lc's who do not 
originate from the bf organisations...) are not bound by budgets, our 
suggestions about improving care are sometimes viewed as unrealistic. In my 
province, I do my utmost to keep on friendly cooperation terms, but I'm 
often frustrated by the very low speed at which things improve. Feels like 
working with the brakes on to prevent ourselves from being neglected 
altogether. I know it is not like this throughout the country. Fortunately, 
I also hear very positive stories from people elsewhere and we are 
constantly trying to find out new ways to cooperate with midwives and 
participate in working committees. The internal mailing list is a very good 
means to blow off steam and to help and motivate one another.
Hope to have been able to shed some light on how the Dutch VBN works.

Warmly,

Marianne Vanderveen, Netherlands

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "gonneke van veldhuizen" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 10:42 AM
Subject: Re: [LACTNET] info about mother to mother breastfeeding support


> In The Netherlands we have 2 M2M organizations LLL and ''Borstvoeding 
> Natuurlijk'' (Breastfeeding natural(ly) ), both about in their 30's by 
> now.Dutch LLLleadership hovers around 60-70 for years now. We do not have 
> members, but donors (200-300 I guess), who receive the 5 times a year 
> ''Borstvoeding Vandaag'' (Breastfeeding Today'' (yes, we kind of picked 
> that one from LLL France's Allaiter Aujourdhui). LLLgroups charge some for 
> coffee and refreshments and to pay the groups dues to LLLI, some a bit 
> more and include a brochure. Most charge between 2,50 and 5 Euro ($1 is 
> about 60 Euro cents, I think)
>
> Borstvoeding Natuurlijk is not my organisation, but perhaps Marianne or 
> Heleen can fill in here.

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